Yale-NUS College

- Why Anthropology
- Anthropology is a social sciences major that explores human diversity in both the present and the past. The major emphasizes ethnographic fieldwork and description as a perspective and as a disposition towards understanding ways of life and human action taking place in our increasingly interconnected world.
  
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- Our Students
- Anthropology attracts a diverse set of students with a wide range of interests. Get to know them today!
  
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- Our Faculty
- Anthropology features a diverse faculty with expertise in a wide range of topics and regions. Get to know them today!
  
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- Our Students' Experience
- Our students engage with Anthropology outside the classroom through internships, study abroad, and involvement in student organizations. Check out these exciting opportunities!
  
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05 April 2019
Congratulations to our Anthropology Majors in the Class of 2019 for finishing your capstones! You have worked so hard on your year-long projects and should be proud of what you have accomplished.
29 March 2019
One of our students, Kristian-Marc James Paul, has been chosen to be the Yale-NUS Graduation 2019 Student Speaker. Kristian is deeply invested in deconstructing gender, race, and other social inequities in Singapore. He was the inaugural Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Yale-NUS Student Government, and was a Residential College Advisor (RCA) during his final year. He was also a Sexual Wellness Peer Educator and helped run Yale-NUS’ gender dialogue group, SPACE. He will be giving his speech during this year’s Graduation Ceremony on May 13, 2019. Congratulations Kristian!
15 March 2019
Prof. Erik Harms, a visiting associate professor from Yale University, will be presenting his paper, “Speculation Speculation: Everyday Views of Property Investors, Urban Planning, and Developers in Ho Chi Minh City” at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Geography.

11 April 2019 (Thu)

Visit to a Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic

Prof. Van Hollen took the students of her Medical Anthropology class on a field trip to a traditional Chinese medicin...

9 March 2019 (Sat)

Body, Health and Medicine: Interview with Prof. Va...

Yale-NUS After Hours is a podcast organized by the Yale-NUS Society for Academic Research. The Head of Studies of Ant...

14 February 2019 (Thu) , 3:00-4:00 PM

Layers, Patches, and Potatoes: On the emergence of...

Doctor Alder Keleman Saxena Yale-NUS College, Singapore This paper considers a paradox: while the genetic diversity o...

22 January 2019 (Tue) , 5-6 PM

The Challenge of Aesthetics: Art and Social Change...

Dr. Wei Hsiu Tung University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan Speaker’s bio: Dr. Wei Hsiu Tung is an Associate Profes...

- Assistant Professor
- Zachary Howlett
What are the best reasons to study Anthropology at Yale-NUS?

Anthropology has been described as the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities. Combining scientific rigor with humanistic imagination, anthropology embodies the best of what a liberal arts education has to offer. In the Anthropology major, you’ll learn valuable methods of analysis that will enable you to appreciate the full complexity of cultural phenomena. But you’ll also keep your eyes on the big picture, maintaining a truly expansive view of what it means to be human. In these ways, Anthropology provides great preparation for the professional and social challenges that you’ll face as leaders in the 21^st century.
- Assistant Professor
- Neena Mahadev
What is the disciplinary perspective of Anthropology?

Anthropology is commonly introduced to students as a way of understanding cultural difference that involves “making the familiar strange, and the making the strange familiar.” To understand other ways of being, knowing, and doing, anthropologists work to challenge the assumptions of the social worlds we ordinarily inhabit, and become familiar with forms of social life that might otherwise appear as “irrational” or strange. This perspectivalism powerfully gives credence to other ways of being, knowing, doing, and aspiring.

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