Meredith L. Weiss argues that while Yale-NUS College has had some success in creating a more open and tolerant campus culture, attempts to preserve this have to be viewed in historical context. Over the decades, students’ engagement in wider society has been suppressed and deprioritised. State controls on student activism and university autonomy have worked […]
Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib, an independent researcher who writes on religious reform, multiculturalism and interreligious relations, considers the effect of the US ‘Global War on Terror’ on Muslim extremism. The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on America, a global superpower, radically changed the world. Two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World […]
Eugene K B Tan, Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, considers Singapore’s response to the threat of terrorism following 9/11. This essay is based on an article published in the journal, Law and Policy (2009). Also in our 9-11 anniversary series:Muslim extremism after two decades of the ‘Global […]
AcademiaSG editors suggest 5 questions for Parliament to consider when they discuss the decision to close Yale-NUS College in 2025.
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In August 2021, AcademiaSG published findings of a survey of Singapore-based academics concerning the state of academic freedom in the republic. This groundbreaking survey of Singapore-based academics sheds light on such questions as: Do academics in Singapore subscribe to international norms concerning academic freedom? How prevalent is the sense of being constrained? What are the mechanisms […]
Shannon Ang, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, considers whether and when it is useful to disaggregate data by race. A recent spate of racist incidents has led to more discussion of inter-ethnic relations and race-based policies, from arguments about concepts like Chinese privilege and Critical Race Theory to policy debates about the […]
Linda Lim, Professor Emerita at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and AcademiaSG Editor, brings an economist’s perspective to the ongoing discussion of racism in Singapore. This piece contains some updates added on 28 June 2021. Recent discourse in Singapore on race, racism and race relations, including on AcademiaSG, has helpfully […]
Sai Siew Min, a Singaporean historian now based in Taipei, discusses key features of the Singapore context which distinguish “Chinese privilege” from “White privilege”, including the role of political authoritarianism, the landscape of linguistic inequalities, and the visibility of racialisation as “Chinese” in Singapore, which connects to our incomplete understanding of the history of the […]
Priscilla Chia, a lawyer at Peter Low & Choo LLC, argues that it is time to reconsider whether the GRC system is meeting its stated aim of achieving minority representation. This is an excerpt from Voting in a Time of Change, edited by Kevin YL Tan and Terence Lee (Ethos Books, 2021). One issue that remained in […]
Constitutional law professor Kevin YL Tan delves into history to show how once-honoured principles for delineating constituency boundaries have been compromised since the 1990s. To ensure that executive discretion does not exceed legal bounds, Singapore should revisit the all-party boundaries committee’s recommendation ahead of the 1959 general election: Singapore should create an independent and permanent […]
