Sem: AY19/20 Special Term II (FASSTrack)
Lecturer: A/P Rajesh Rai
*note: classes were conducted over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Overview: Decided to take this mod over the summer as my internship ended just after 1 month and I was faced with the prospect of having nothing to do at home for another 2 months (Phase 1 and early days of Phase 2 when everyone was still scared of going out). Did not initially have high hopes for this mod but it ended up exceeding my expectations. I think it did help that many of those who enrolled into this mod during Special Term were genuinely interested in the topics which made for a positive learning environment overall. Prof Rai is definitely one of the experts in this lesser-known field, and it shows in how he meticulously covers the history of South Asians in Singapore, as well as the issues they face in the past and present. He offers a South Asian perspective of Singapore history, from colonial times to the Japanese Occupation to post-independence, that you don’t often find in mainstream history books and this was truly an eye-opener for me. One of the greatest takeaways from this module was that South Asians in Singapore are not a homogenous community, but are instead extremely diverse in terms of origins, language and religion. Readings were also interesting and helpful in solidifying my understanding of the topics being covered in class.
Assessment:
Note: Special Term mods can be quite intensive as it spans only a total of 5 weeks, so I had like 2-3 lectures and 1 tutorial every week. There were also presentations and assignments to complete, so make sure you can commit fully to this before enrolling in any Special Term mod.
Tutorial Participation and Presentation (30%): There were a total of 5 tutorial sessions. You have to do a graded individual presentation for one of the tutorial sessions based on the topic for that week, and that forms the bulk of your grade for this component. While some of my tutorial mates had difficulties finding content for their presentation, much of the content can actually be found in the readings so it’s really important that you do them. In fact, nearly my entire presentation was based on the readings and I did get a good grade for it. Just be meticulous (not touch-and-go) and clear in your explanations and you’ll be rewarded accordingly.
Written Essay (35%): A 2.5k word essay based on questions from past-year exam papers. Try to pick essay questions that are largely based on the lectures/readings and which you can easily find content on, as this will make your job much easier. This is because South Asia in Singapore is a field that is less-studied and scholarly literature outside of the module might be hard to come by, at least in my experience.
Book Review (35%): Prof Rai gave us a choice of 3 books to review for this component. I chose to review his book Indians in Singapore as he bases around half of this module on this book, which allowed me to finish the book a lot quicker. As I said, Special Term mods can be really intense and the book review was due just after the Written Essay. Book review samples were also provided, which really helped me to structure my review and know what the markers were looking out for.
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