Erik Harms joins the course
Erik Harms joins the course
Erik Harms, recently moved to Singapore all the way from Hamden, Connecticut, a so-called “leafy suburb” just on the border of New Haven. Professor Harms, also known as Erik, teaches in the department of anthropology at Yale University. He finds it a bit curious that a scholar from the US might teach about Southeast Asia to students living in Singapore, but there may be an anthropological logic to this. “I have always believed that the encounter with the not-yet-contextualized is a central way to develop new knowledge about the world,” professor Harms says. While it is not clear at all what he means by that cryptic statement, he promises that it does in fact mean something. While teaching in Singapore, prof Harms is excited to share what he knows about Southeast Asia with Yale-NUS students, but even more excited to learn from all the students in the classroom this semester. Who will be the teachers, and who will be the student? We will soon find out!
For those who are curious, professor Harms has been studying urban transformations in Ho Chi Minh City since around the year 2000. He first visited Vietnam in 1997, after which he went to graduate school in anthropology at Cornell University, where he was a member of the (in)famous Southeast Asia Program.
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Danielle Sim, who has lived in Singapore all her life, chose to join this course after realising how little she knew about the geopolitical contexts of countries in general – so why not start with regions closer to home? After spending a semester abroad in North America and having multiple interactions in which she had to explain the lifestyle, demographics, and culture of Singapore (and Southeast Asia at large), she found out how much Southeast Asia is seen as a region associated with holidaying, backpacking, and the Infinity Pool at Marina Bay Sands. After trying to deflect questions on why she herself has not travelled much around the region despite it being “affordable” and “convenient”, Danielle is now reflecting on how one’s identity is shaped (or not) by living in Southeast Asia.
Danielle Sim, who has lived in Singapore all her life, chose to join this course after realising how little she knew about the geopolitical contexts of countries in general – so why not start with regions closer to home? After spending a semester abroad in North America and having multiple interactions in which she had to explain the lifestyle, demographics, and culture of Singapore (and Southeast Asia at large), she found out how much Southeast Asia is seen as a region associated with holidaying, backpacking, and the Infinity Pool at Marina Bay Sands. After trying to deflect questions on why she herself has not travelled much around the region despite it being “affordable” and “convenient”, Danielle is now reflecting on how one’s identity is shaped (or not) by living in Southeast Asia.
Sarah Werner, an exchange student from Freiburg, Germany, born in Munich, the town where the Oktoberfest was invented and is – funnily enough - celebrated in late September, moved to Singapore a few weeks ago. Besides engaging more with her major Life Scienes, she would like to focus on public and global health and the complex interactions between different cultures and life styles that form the backbone for the success of new health policies and measures. For this reason, she has chosen the course “Modern Southeast Asia”: to learn more about different countries, cultures, historical and social backgrounds. She hopes that this will enable her to understand human behavior better. She finds it interesting that in an academic setting in Singapore, people do not knock on tables when the class has ended.
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