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 Alumni
- Anthropology students have gone on to do a diverse number of things and hold a wide number of positions. Get to know them today!
  
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22 April 2021
On April 29-30, Professor Neena Mahadev and a team of researchers from NUS will be hosting an e-conference on pandemic transformations and mediations of religious presence and distance. If you’re interested in attending the conference, please register at this link: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/events/rgc19/.
18 March 2021
Prof. Zachary M. Howlett has just published the book Meritocracy and Its Discontents: Anxiety and the National College Entrance Exam in China. Congratulations, Prof. Howlett!
04 February 2021
Prof. Lau Ting Hui will be speaking on the panel, Cultural Narratives Through Writing. The event will be held over Zoom on the 4th of February from 7-8.30pm. Please do register for the event here: https://yale-nus.campuslabs.com/engage/event/6744195.

23 April 2021 (Fri) , 11-12.30pm

Fateful Rite of Passage: The National College Entr...

On the 23rd of April, Professor Zachary Howlett will be presenting the lecture: “Fateful Rite of Passage: The N...

23 April 2021 (Fri) , 8 - 9.30pm

Assistive Technologies for the Deaf in Jordan

The Anthropology Department is excited to host Timothy Loh, NUS Anthropology Fellow 20/21, for a workshop on his diss...

20 April 2021 (Tue) , 7.30-9pm

Applying to Graduate School for Anthropology

Join us on the 20th of April from 7.30-9 pm to hear from staff and alumni on applying to graduate school for Anthropo...

9 April 2021 (Fri) , 7.30 - 9pm

Anthropology End-of-Semester Gathering

On the 9th of April from 7.30-9pm, the Anthropology department will be hosting their annual End-of-Semester gathering...

- 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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