History

Announcements

Last Week, 08 Jan 2020
History Talks: Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism

Join us tomorrow to hear Professor Onur Ulas Ince give a talk about his new book, Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism!
Previous Month, 11 Oct 2019
“The Historian’s Craft” class trip to Baba House, October 4, 2019

On 4 October 2019, students from the “Historian’s Craft” class had the opportunity to visit the Baba House, gaining insight into the work that goes into curating and preserving Heritage Homes. Thank you to the Baba House for hosting us!

“The Historian’s Craft” class trip to Baba House, October 4, 2019
Previous Month, 16 Sep 2019
Class Exhibition – 1917: War and Revolution

The First World War or the Great War was the “great seminal catastrophe” of the twentieth century (GeorgeKennan) that left almost twenty million people dead and just as many wounded, disabled, and traumatized. For many, including the historian Eric Hobsbawm, the start of the Great War marked the true beginning of the twentieth-century that he labelled as the Age of Extremes. The Great War was the first global war that deeply affected Southeast Asian populations as well. Many of them, especially from Indochina, were drafted for labour service in the Western Front while others suffered from trade restrictions and more stringent colonial oppression. The war’s impact also cut across social classes and gender while women and children emerged as primary targets of home-front propaganda. The selection of works by Yale-NUS students enrolled at the Historical Immersion course 1917: War and Revolution in spring 2019 offers an innovative take on the war, inciting reflection and participation at the interactive panels.
Previous Month, 18 Sep 2019
“The Historian’s Craft” class trip to the National Archives of Singapore in partnership with the National Library of Singapore, September 6, 2019
Previous Month, 05 Apr 2019
History Capstone Presentations

Come listen to the class of 2019 present their hard work!

April 10
12:45 – 5:40 PM
Classroom 13

Check out the schedule for more information:
History-Capstone-Presentations-2019

History Majors – 2018
Photo by Sean Cham
Previous Month, 21 Mar 2019
Cartoons and International Relations: The South African Story

Peter Vale (from the University of Johannesburg) will be giving a talk on political cartoons.

26 March
7-8:30 PM
Saga Lecture Theatre
Previous Month, 18 Mar 2019
Writing History Creatively: Lunch Time Talk with Resil Mojares

As part of the Creative Writing Reading Series on Writing History Creatively, Dr. Resil Mojares will be giving a Lunch Time Talk / Conversation. Dr. Resil Mojares is a historian and a National Artist Award for Literature in the Philippines. His scholarly interests have ranged from urban studies, Southeast Asian intellectual history and the literary essay, among others. Building on his body of work, Resil Mojares joins us for a lunch time talk that explores the ways history can figure in a literary text and outlines his own efforts of writing history that blurs the boundaries between scholarly and literary writing.

Friday, March 22, 12-1 pm.
Saga Common Lounge.

Lunch will be provided

There are limited spots available, so please register at this link:
https://bit.ly/ync-mojares-2019

To get a sense of his work, attendees are encouraged to read two essays by Dr. Mojares: “The Book that Did Not Exist” and “The Dangerous Beauty of the Headhunter”.

This event is co-sponsored by Creative Writing the Writers’ Centre and History.

Resil Mojares is the author of such award-winning works as The Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel (1983), House of Memory (1997), Waiting for Mariang Mailing: Essays in Philippine Cultural History (2002), and Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes and The Production of Modern Knowledge (2006). He has served as visiting professor in universities in Japan, Singapore, and the United States. He resides in Cebu City where he is Professor Emeritus at the University of San Carlos. He received the National Artist award for Literature in 2018.
Previous Month, 11 Mar 2019
NUS Museum Internship Application

Please click on this link to apply: http://nus.edu.sg/museum/pdf/2019/NUSMuseum_CallforApplicantsMay2019.pdf
Previous Month, 16 Feb 2019

Empire Under Construction: The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in Singapore

Saga Rector’s Tea with Clay Eaton – Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Humanities, Yale-NUS College

Before the Second World War, Singapore was the centre of British imperial power in Southeast Asia. In 1942, a Japanese invasion severed the city’s connections to the British Empire and the surrounding region. But, as the daily struggle for survival during the next three-and-a-half years of occupation dominated the lives of many local residents, Singapore’s Japanese occupiers held grand ambitions to turn it into a new kind of imperial city. It would be Syonan, the “nerve centre” of Japanese rule in Southeast Asia. Even as their control over the region unravelled, Japanese administrators clung to the idea that they were “constructing” a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” with Syonan as its regional capital.

This talk will review the many ways in which the effort to build this co-prosperity sphere shaped the occupation of Singapore and, by extension, the daily lives of the people who lived through it.
Previous Month, 17 Feb 2019

The Beauty Queen as Jewish Heroine

About the talk:
Esther, perhaps the most remarkable woman in the Hebrew Bible, was neither a matriarch nor a prophetess. She was the first Jewish beauty queen, and it was her seductive looks that helped save the Jewish people from impending destruction, making the beauty queen an unlikely Jewish heroine. This session will explore the role of Jewish beauty queens in shaping Jewish identity, from Queen Esther of the Bible to Queen Esther of the Tel Aviv Purim carnival, from the ‘beautiful Jewess’ of the antisemitic imagination to Miss Judea (Poland) and, above all, Boske Simon (Miss Hungary 1929).

February 27, 18:30
Saga Common Lounge