Anonymous (1) AY25/26 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Kathryn McHarry, Dr Bjorn Gomes)

The first half of the semester was covered by Dr. McHarry, who comes from an Anthropology background. I found the lessons conducted difficult to follow, as she tended to go on tangents and did not adequately address coursemates' questions on the readings. While she provided context for the readings (motivations, socio-political landscape), these pieces of information were not effectively synthesised with the ideas in each reading. Overall, I thought her style of teaching was more catered for a U.S. university, given the country's history of slavery and oppression of the Black community - which was something she frequently expanded on during lessons.

Dr. Bjorn, who comes from a Political Science background, took over my NGT section in the second half. I found the lessons conducted easier to follow, as Dr. Bjorn took into consideration 1. the esoteric nature of the readings 2. the class' academic background (no sociology majors - predominantly CS, DSE with the others being from Law, PPE, Econs, Engineering, Psychology) and tailored lessons accordingly. He would lay out the main argument of each reading clearly and concisely, making complex ideas easier to grasp. Due to the specialised nature of the readings, class discussions could veer into unrelated tangential topics, but he was skilled at extracting the essence of our contentions and re-directing these ideas raised towards the main theme of that lesson. His theatrical sense of humour also livened the class. Finally, I found his consultations (compulsory for the final project and class presentation, recommended for the midterm essay) extremely productive. For my midterm essay, I was quite clear on my thesis and argument, but lacked ideas on meaningfully addressing potential objections. He provided useful guidance and encouraged independent thought, instead of directly suggesting counter-points.

Content (Structure/Organization): 

The course was split into two major sections: cosmopolitanism in the first half, and global challenges in the second half. The two sections were quite disparate for me, even though the second half expands on the first half. 

As the course covers a number of social thinkers from different schools of social thought, it is not possible to delve deeply into each reading - though the general essence of each can be summarised each lesson. (one social thinker would typically form the syllabus for an entire course, for the course to be sufficiently comprehensive) The jargon is difficult to grasp, especially for those who have minimal exposure to sociology beyond NSW. Understanding the frameworks put forth in each reading is challenging, and depends signficiantly on the lecturer's delivery and exposition of key ideas.

Manageability of Workload: 

The weekly readings (one per lesson, fewer than NSW) are quite dense, but the amount of time and effort one wishes to dedicate to them is entirely up to personal discretion. Few read the readings in their entirety, let alone annotating and distilling key ideas - which would take about 1.5h per reading, depending on length and difficulty.

The main assignments were: the class presentation, midterm essay, final project (a 10-15min video presentation). These take up a significant amount of time due to the pre-preparation work as well as the time spent actually completing the assignment. (given the nature of the content) Again, the amount of time and effort one wishes to dedicate to them is entirely up to personal discretion. Some parts of the process were straight-up painful for me: I spent around 3-5 days just re-reading the relevant readings and trying to synthesise them into a somewhat decent thesis for my midterm essay. A conservative estimate for the time I spent on each assignment would be 5h for the class presentation (including the consultations and group-meetings), 15h for the midterm essay, 7h for the final project.

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:

Not sure: grades haven't been released at the time of this review and I've not heard anything about the grading style of my section's lecturer.

Learning Value/Recommendation: 

High: however, much of the value proposition of this course (thinking of oneself as a global citizen interconnected with the global population, the challenges and opportunities arising from this implication) depends on the quality of the class discusions and teaching instruction. (as with most courses on social thought) Additionally, many of the readings may not feel personally relevant (save for the few readings by local academics) so the overall learning value in terms of personal enrichment may be limited if these links are perceived as superficial or even nonexistent.

Anonymous (2) AY25/26 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Benedek Varga):

Benedek Varga is pretty structured with his lessons. In the first half, he led the lessons while in the second half it was all class facilitations. Varga is really good at condensing the main ideas of the readings into a few sentences, which helped the class to get the gist of the reading especially when the reading is long, or when the author tends to meander. That being said, you still need to do your readings as he assumes that you have done it and conducts the class with the intention of having you clarify and apply the readings. One way which he gets us to apply the readings is through analysis of visual media, such as paintings, newspaper articles, magazine covers etc. I really enjoyed this method of teaching as having discussions on the reading alone can be pretty dry. 

Varga is also really knowledgeable about the topics and likes to reference other authors not included in our readings in conveying a point or idea. When he does so, he is able to keep it simple and avoid overcomplicating things. 

Content (Structure/Organization): 

I liked the first half where concepts like progress, colonialisation, culture etc were being taught. In the second half, the content focused on modern applications of concepts from the first half. While i liked that the concepts were grounded in present issues, they felt a bit narrow as identity was a central concept in many of the readings. I would have liked to have more applications of Kant, Marx or the other philosophers.

Manageability of Workload: 

On a weekly basis there is not much to do except for the readings. If you prefer to spend time on your readings, your workload will naturally be heavier. Other assessments include a midterm essay, class facilitation and final video project. It will probably start to feel heavy in the second half of the semester as Varga starts the class facilitations in that period. 

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades: 

Benedek Varga hides all the grades so you'll only have your midterm essay grade. For the midterm essay, he can give you a borderline grade, such as B+/A-, which makes you work harder in your final project if you want to push your overall up. For your final project, he allowed us to request for comments after our submission, but he won't give you a grade either. 

Learning value of this course: 

I really enjoyed this course as the content had a lot of breadth and depth. So it didn't feel like fluff. 

Other Comments:

Benedek Varga is a great prof and is really helpful. He is pretty responsive in his emails and is generally open to consults. The consults themselves are also helpful in having you narrow down or refine your ideas for your deliverables. So even though the course can be hard, you'll feel like the prof is on your side. 

Anonymous (3) AY25/26 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Benedek Varga):

Prof Benedek comes to lesson prepared, with key takeaways and clear learning objectives. He makes it clear what he is looking for in the graded assessments, as well as the common pitfall. His grading is strict but reasonable. I personally find that he may be less open to bouncing off ideas or ideating during consultations (while other profs may be more open to doing so)

Content (Structure/Organization): 

I did not like how half of our syllabus is dependent on our peer’s class presentation. Given that class presentation is a part of assessment criteria, the ngt classes under all/most profs are structured in the way that at least half (if not more than that) are led by student discussions. While this allows for greater ownership, some concepts are particularly more abstract, asking students to present would limit the amount of learning that the class can get.

Manageability of Workload: 

I spent a lot of time on graded tasks like class presentation and midterm/final essays and still didn’t do as well. Personally, I think that this course is even heavier than NTW, and it can be more difficult than NTW because you have a strict set of readings to refer to when writing your submissions, whereas NTW final essay allows you to write any topic of your choice in reference to any academic paper. But take it with a pinch of salt!

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:

Unable to comment extensively on this, but a good grasp of the reading is very important so as to apply the concepts meaningfully in your final paper pertaining to the chosen global issue.

Learning Value/Recommendation: 

It is definitely an interesting mod, touching on many different aspects (national identity, social integration, feminism, cosmopolitanism, identity etc.). I thought that what should have been a greater focus is not unpacking the obfuscatory text, but rather what we think about it, or even analysing how different authors approach the same matter.

Anonymous AY25/26 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Ryan Tans):

I felt the professor (Prof Ryan Tans) was a nice man who was very encouraging in opening up class discussions and encouraging people to speak up. He was also always open to consult and would give detailed feedback (although it takes some time). However, I think his style focuses more on student-led discussions, so be prepared for less input on his part. 

Content (Structure/Organization): 

The course was split into 2 different parts, 1) global humanity and 2) global challenges. I felt that I enjoyed the first part more, with the readings easier to grasp and more interesting with ideas about communism, what modernity means, and colonialism. Some examples of readings we would do is Gandhi, Marx, the communist manifesto, Fanon, etc. Personally, I did not particularly enjoy the second part with the readings being a bit more challenging. It was a lot more theoretical and talked about things like orientalism, religion, feminism. 

Manageability of Workload: 

My prof was quite good in understanding limitations and would reduce readings in the later half as well as extend deadlines if need be. Other than that, I would say there is not a lot of time spent on it, with about an hour each reading, (2 readings a week). The only intense assingments were the midterm essay and final project (Video) and the week you were assigned to lead the class presentation.

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:

I think A- or B+ is very achievable, not sure about the A.

Learning Value/Recommendation: 

It is quite interesting but not super applicable to modern life. Think of it as NSW 2.0 but with more historical context and more focused on the global scene.

Anonymous (1) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Bjorn Gomes)

Dr Bjorn conducted the classes really well - as someone without prior background, I find his explanation of the key concepts from the readings to be very accessible and greatly improved my understanding of the readings and the topics. He also facilitates class discussion very well, building upon input from students to push the discussion further to bring about deeper understanding of the concepts (eg application of the thoughts). As he is a very approachable prof, class discussions are generally quite fun as well.

Dr Bjorn is very approachable and very knowledgeable. Highly recommend doing other courses offered by him!

Content (Structure/Organization)

NGT is generally a difficult course - as a STEM student, I had little background with the theories and frameworks covered in this course, and digesting the readings was a struggle. However, Dr Bjorn was very good at scaffolding the readings and providing additional background information, which greatly improved my understanding of the readings and subsequent readings felt easier to follow as well. Because of the familiarity that our lecturer has with the structure of the course, he was able to relate different readings to each other that made the course feel more structured and effective. 

Manageability of Workload

If you really want to learn about the content, a lot of effort is required outside of class to digest the readings (especially for those without prior knowledge). I would say the 2 assignments took up quite a lot of time as well.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

NGT is part of the common curriculum so the way grades are handed out differs across professors. Dr Bjorn is stricter with grades (but he probably isn't doing NGT anymore)

Learning Value/Recommendation

Personally I really enjoyed the course and felt I learnt a lot in terms of the different schools of thoughts and their applications. From my discussions with my friends, I do think the learning value of NGT will depend quite heavily on the professor.

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

choose your NGT lecturer wisely if you want to have a common curriculum with high learning value. 

Anonymous (2) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Bjorn Gomes)

Prof kathryn had to leave halfway through our course and prof bjorn took over for us, imo prof kathryn gave space for us to share our thoughts but she mostly shared throughout the lesson, under prof bjorn we didn't get a chance to see his teaching in full as it was all group presentations but sometimes he'll interject and conclude the class with his comments, he is very good at explaining concepts and making them easy to understand esp since the readings can be convoluted.

Prof bjorn is honestly q approachable, for presentation he gave pretty detailed feedback during our consult, but only thing is he took a lot of time to return our midterm grades, to be fair, he had a higher workload since he unexpectedly had to grade 2 more classes work but we only got back the midterm paper 2/3 days before the final assignment was due, he prioritised detailed feedback over giving us back the papers earlier which is fair i guess but i was lowkey contemplating s/u ing NGT so not a good thing for me HAHA i kinda needed to gauge how much effort to put in for the final assignment based on midterms.

Content (Structure/Organization)

The content in this class is honestly interesting once you understand how the concepts link with each other, you can feel a disconnect with the first half and second half of the course but within the halves they connect well with each other.

Manageability of Workload

In order to do the course properly, you would need to read the readings every week which would take up quite sometime, honestly some weeks i didn't do the readings, but that means that week you wouldn't be able to participate in class as it'll be a breakdown of what was in class so really up to you on how you wanna do the class, if you do it properly you do need to allocate q a bit of time.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

I think prof bjorn is quite fair in handing out grades, he sets out his expectations and as long as you follow them you should be okay.

Learning Value/Recommendation

overall a course where you do learn q a bit!!

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

Don’t overload while doing this course unless you have a strong background in politics and philosophy.

Nethan Mikil Kuruppu (@I_AM_atomikk) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Bjorn Gomes)

The best! 

While the content was very challenging, the Professor was great at explaining the concepts very clearly and very thoroughly, even if he had to spend more than the allocated time going on tangents with the questions we ask.

Content (Structure/Organization)

Overall, the course content is very interesting, but equally challenging, with some readings requiring more than the allocated time of 1 seminar to discuss.

Manageability of Workload

A lot of time (at least more than the 6 hours recommended)... especially if you want to do the module the proper way.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

Very hard if you are honest and are keen to learn.

Learning Value/Recommendation

Seems very useful to better understand current global events.

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

Outlast the pain to reap the reward. Good luck!

Anonymous (3) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Chen Ying)

I feel Dr Chen Ying takes the time & effort to prepare for class and i appreciate it. However i feel it can get quite mundane and the lessons could be more engaging. As the second half of the class comes from internal discussions, i feel these discussions could be better guided. For instance, instead of us discussing & coming up with the answers, the tutor could moderate the discussions with activities which might be relevant to us.

I like that she is approachable and puts in the effort to teach us lessons beyond the syllabus.

Content (Structure/Organization)

I honestly find the course quite a challenge, but nevertheless learnt a lot from it. The links between the different topics could be better established and perhaps a clearer reading guide could be provided. I find the readings on cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism particularly hard as I had little exposure to these readings.

Manageability of Workload

3-4 hours, mainly to decipher the challenging readings.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

Hard. I feel doing well involved an in-depth understanding of the topics, which was a challenge for me.

Learning Value/Recommendation

Despite it being challenging, i really enjoyed learning about the world through the course, so a 8.5/10. Perhaps how it’s being taught can be improved so we could learn more effectively.

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

You have to put into the effort to read and learn, don’t just ChatGPT everything!

Anonymous (4) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Chen Ying)

Initially, it was hard to follow along with discussions because she had no slides and little visual record. However, she was very open to our feedback and modified the teaching style. She would release the guiding questions a week before each class so that we knew what the main theme was and could do our readings more efficiently. During the lesson, we would write our answers on the whiteboard and explain them. I like this interactive approach as it trained us from the start to be more articulate.

She explained the concepts in beginner-friendly ways, and her teaching is generally accessible for those with little background. This was more so for the second half of the course than the first.  

Content (Structure/Organization)

I prefer the second half of the course because [it] was easier to apply concepts to our lives and current affairs. Overall, the readings were challenging for those with little background. Nevertheless, I think the course is effective at encouraging us to think critically about how power dynamics in society shape the way we live today, and how Singapore differs from other countries. 

I found the mid term timed essay the most challenging. Even though it was open book, the timed conditions were pressurizing. 

Manageability of Workload

On a weekly basis, I spent no more than 2 hours on readings. The presentation and final video were very time consuming for me due to the creative and interpretation processes. Nevertheless, Prof Chen’s practice of sharing the guiding questions and theme she wants us to focus on reduces the presentation workload. 

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

It’s hard to score an A but a B+ is attainable. Prof Chen is quite lenient with grading and gives quite a lot of flexibility. She looks out for how well we apply concepts and how strong our arguments are.

Anonymous (5) AY24/25 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Hanisah Sani)

Prof was very nice and gentle, but unfortunately I found her rather boring, she [had] a tendency to speak softly and it ended up lulling me to sleep more than anything, despite my interest in the topics. Would have enjoyed more group discussion and more in-depth dive into the readings, there was a tendency to stay on a general level of discussion rather than going into the details of some readings. 

Prof spends the first half of the lesson talking about the previous lesson, before [having] the presentation and then a short discussion on that lesson's readings. I personally would have preferred less of the recap because it would take 30min++ out of what we could have spent on that week's readings. The recap bridges the lessons, but I felt that together with the prof being rather mild, it did not make for very exciting lessons. 

Prof is generally nice and supportive. She would nod very enthusiastically whenever we bring up points in discussion or during our presentation. In general I enjoyed classes, some readings were just difficult to get through, my prof would try to make it easier. I think my only issue was that the energy was sometimes low, but overall, it really was a good course experience. 

Content (Structure/Organization)

Generally a good breadth and depth, moving from classic big name thinkers to more specific recent names. Inevitably, some breadth was sacrificed to cover the sheer range.

Manageability of Workload

2 readings a week, more often than not they are either long and/or dense. I enjoyed most readings, although I skipped/skimmed quite a few. from a fass background i found it okay to go to class without reading the full reading. The discussions did not usually go very deeply into the details of the reading and prof usually tried to get us to discuss things close to us like contextualising stuff to a singporean context. i personally did not enjoy that since it made certain discussions too much like NSW, but that said it did make it easier to go to class if i [hadn't] fully understand/read the readings.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

its alright i think as with most profs earnest[ness] and interest [are] appreciated. It's possible to do decently well with enough interest and effort, but, also, because of my major's overlaps with the course, this could be different from person to person, so it depends.

Learning Value/Recommendation

ngt is one of my favourite nusc mods so far and i found it was a course with returns. if u love ngt, it will love u back, etc etc. Work needs to be put [in,], but it was fulfilling to do so.

Ng Shang Wen (@shangwenn) AY23/24 Sem 2

About the Instructor (Dr Amanda Blair)

Prof Blair is good at tailoring her teaching style to the level of the class. Initially, I felt that she did not go sufficiently in-depth into some of the readings' arguments, such as Trouillot, because she was trying to scaffold the readings. But I think as we went on and the class was more comfortable with the readings, she also begun to go deeper into the readings. In the second half of the course, as there were many class presentations, Prof Blair would use the first half of the class to summarise some of the key arguments in the reading. I thought she did so very clearly and she also managed to relate the key arguments to other readings.

Prof Blair also incorporates a variety of activities into the class which spices up her facilitation and improves engagement. 

Prof Blair is a strong proponent of work-life balance - you have to catch her for consults during her prescribed hours, and she will not entertain emails beyond the deadline she stipulates. 

Content (Structure/Organization)

The course is broadly organised into two units - Global Humanity (focused on colonialism) and Global Challenges (focused on multiculturalism). There is some attempt to tie both units together - for example, we went from colonialism to post-colonial legacies to the issue of cultural rights (which becomes more salient post-independence when you have different groups to manage).

Nevertheless, I found that there were some parts that didn't seem to tie with each other very well. Within the Global Humanity unit, we start with Scheffler's "Conceptions of Cosmopolitanism", then abruptly jump to Kant's political philosophy (who does mention cosmopolitanism but only a little), before moving to a critique of colonisation. The structure in this part is confusing - if the first unit wants to focus on colonisation, it should do so without trying to bring in other readings, just because these readings were important to the development of social thought. Alternatively, if the course wants to do more than colonisation, it could probably benefit from having a separate unit whose topic is more coherent and clearly defined. 

Manageability of Workload

There are two readings per week, so if you read all the readings, you probably will have to spend around five to six hours a week reading. Some of the readings are also quite dense, especially the non-contemporary ones.

For my class, I think it was a bit more difficult to get away without reading, because we had only 10 people and my instructor would frequently ask questions about the readings during seminar.

But for the purpose of assessments, I think you can get away with reading four readings in total - one for the midterm essay, one for the class presentation, and two for the final video.

I think the class presentation might be the most time consuming - at least for my class, we had to not just explain the reading's argument, but also apply the reading to a case study. We also had to spend time working out with Prof what aspects we would each cover.

The final video isn't too taxing; even though it is 15 min long, it's perfectly fine to do it viva voce style, which means you don't have to spend time doing video editing. 

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

Prof is somewhat strict in giving good grades. There are certain things she is quite anal about. For example, your class presentation must incorporate substantial engagement activities - just having one Menti at the start might not cut it.

Given this, it is useful to consult her for your assignments (before you start working on the details), just to get a sense of whether she is ok with your big idea. She gives decent feedback for both consults and after the assignment, although her writing can be a little difficult to read... 

Learning Value/Recommendation

Overall, I would say the course provided a useful overview to different views on colonialism and multiculturalism, which is an area I might not have touched in my own field even as a PPE major. 

Anonymous AY23/24 Sem 2

About the Instructor (Dr Amanda Blair)

She tried her best but the class wasnt responsive so I can't evaluate her attempts. She was okay in conveying the concepts from course material; sometimes its alright sometimes I am still confused. 

I find her really nitpicky, focusing on minutia and that I really disliked cuz these things are what dragged my grades down. For example, other profs' feedback and justification for grades are based less on minor details but more on overarching issues w my work but hers is primarily on minute details which gives me the impression that these are the things that affect my grades. Maybe I am wrong but if I am wrong then her feedbacks need to improve. Also she does not feel very approachable, she tries to be friendly but feels kind of cold. The vibes are a bit off but thats also a personal opinion thing. 

Content (Structure/Organization)

The structure is a mess, even my prof can't figure out what the end goal/scaffolding is. There is no clear way of getting to the learning objectives; feels like we are just jumping around like Mario. She tried her best to make things link and structure them but she can only do so much with what she was given. I found the midterm essay challenging and its the first essay I genuinely did not know what to do which makes me think its a huge problem 

Manageability of Workload

Too heavy, I spent way too much time on this. Her essay questions were in my opinion way too difficult. 

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

Under her, not very achievable given how nitpicky she is. I dont know what it takes to get a decent grade under her because all the people I know under her got bad grades despite their work not being that bad based on her comments (maybe she is sugarcoating? idk) 

Learning Value/Recommendation

Not useful at all for me but then again it had a lot of overlap with what I was studying so 

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

Just take it when they reworked it aft this AY or do it in sem 2 to see if after the rework it is still as bad as it is. Worst mod taken by far.

Tiffany Tang (@oikibby) AY23/24 Sem 2

About the Instructor (Dr Amanda Blair)

Prof was really knowledgeable, with particular knowledge in global affairs owing to her experience in international work. This was especially helpful with the sheer breadth of topics in NGT and also quite aligned with my own Global Studies and Pol Sci background.

Even though some course content can be challenging for some students, Prof Amanda was good at simplifying and explaining the concepts. She was also quite flexible and built off the findings of student, making the learning experience quite student centred

Content (Structure/Organization)

more flexible and dependent on findings of the student

Manageability of Workload

So honestly, the workload was not especially challenging and you could lowkey get away with last minute doing the readings or using some ai generated summary, as long as you remain engaged in class. Prof also made it easier by specifying areas that she wanted us to focus on in the readings. There were no extra assignments on top of readings

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

I think the assignment breakdown is pretty important to take note of, for our semester, the final assignment had a huge weightage which definitely helped me pull up my overall grade from a B+ in the midterms. Prof is a reasonable marker and gave us so much valuable feedback on our writing in the midterm (though the final wasn’t an essay so it’s not really continuous). Though she was not especially lenient for essays, I really cannot argue with any of her criticism

Learning Value/Recommendation

I think it was quite valuable, though certain topics were really familiar, i think the breadth of the topics made it harder to delve really deep but i think it’s good knowledge to have regardless.

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

I mean it’s compulsory either way, i would just suggest students take take mods under profs who match their style of learning, whether structured or flexible

Nguyen Thu Hoai (@thwhoai) AY23/24 Sem 2

About the Instructor (Dr Kiven Strohm)

GREAT! Kiven utilises whiteboarding as a mean for students to engage in the text and in conversations with one another. He is knowledgable and has his own take on the readings. The readings that he introduces (each prof has around two readings that they can put in themselves per sem) are really good. I feel comfortable with voicing out that the texts are hard to read / hard to follow, and Kiven made it more accessible to me.

I like Kiven as a a person and that’s why I took his class. Had an enjoyable time in class (though I do zone out a lot just because the content can be so… abstract.

Content (Structure/Organization)

The readings are very hard and philosophical. Some of the readings are quite old and the written was hard to read. It was a good experience to learn it but it was quite hard / got boring at a lot of points. GREAT! Kiven utilises whiteboarding as a mean for students to engage in the text and in conversations with one another. He is knowledgable and has his own take on the readings. The readings that he introduces (each prof has around two readings that they can put in themselves per sem) are really good. I feel comfortable with voicing out that the texts are hard to read / hard to follow, and Kiven made it more accessible to me.

Manageability of Workload

I think this depends on how much effort you put into reading the readings. I would throw the readings into chat gpt first to understand the gist of it, read the intro and the conclusion, then read the full thing. I find this process made me understand the reading faster / enough for me to understand what people are discussing in class and participate in class discussion. Kiven also encourages skims through and highlights what stands out to you, instead of having to understand the whole thing. This reduces the workload of it. The final outputs make sense and how much effort you want to put also depends on you.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

I think this is a rather liberal grader, but it might just be me I got lucky…

Learning Value/Recommendation

I like Kiven as a a person and that’s why I took his class. Had an enjoyable time in class (though I do zone out a lot just because the content can be so… abstract.

Anonymous AY23/24 Sem 1

About the Instructor (Dr Kathryn McHarry)

Prof McHarry is a very understanding, open-minded, culturally sensitive, friendly, approachable, and very patient prof. Even though most of us students might want to sleep due to sleep deprivation or tiredness, her bubbly personality makes it very difficult to fall asleep in. She really cares about her students wellbeing, especially during the mid-terms week and end-sem where you will hear her being concerned for our well-being and being understanding of what we are going through. You wouldn't feel that you are being judged when you ask her questions after class so in a sense she does provide a safe environment for you to ask questions. She is also very knowledgeable in many different fields, so pitching ideas to her for the mid-term essay and the final project shouldn't be much of a problem. Even if she does not have much knowledge on the topic you might be doing, she will try her best to help you as much as she can. You can always arrange a consultation with her during office hours, and can be reached over email, or you could simply ask her after class. She is also very flexible in a sense that we could do on almost any topic (for the final project) as long as it fulfills the "global challenge” prompt. Just two things: 1) don't expect her to help you to think about how to write/plan your assignments. 2) be on time for class; unless you have a good reason why you are coming late for class (eg a class at another faculty before her class), come to class on time. She has a very good temper and barely gets angry, but in the later part of the semester, some students started to come late frequently so it kind of triggered her a bit...

For most part of the module, students are giving the presentation of the readings to class at the start. If prof wanted to mention about about the reading/module she will mention it at the start before letting the student do their presentation. Afterwards, it will be discussion time of the discussion questions written by the student presenter in groups. So for most part of the module it isn't prof-led but more student-led. On the days where prof is actually the one teaching, she will inject her bubbly personality and give the presentation of the readings and a more insights on the authors readings. If you are unsure of the readings, you can always ask her for help.

Content (Structure/Organization)

The module is separated into two parts – Global Humanity (Weeks 1-6), and Global Challenges (Weeks 7-13). The readings feature many scholars from different fields, especially those well-known ones like Marx, and Kant. Even though this module was new, GST is a well-structured and generally well-delivered module. Most readings are ok but some readings require reading 2-3 times before understanding what it is saying (especially for Kant's).

Although this mod has TWW/WCT and USW as pre-requisites, as someone who didn't take USW and was initially warned by NUSC Acad office that I might lack behind in terms of content, I still take that calculated risk by taking this module to clear my requirements. Did I struggle in this mod due to my lack of USW content? I didn't really feel that "struggle" as much, because it seems that if I were to struggle with a certain reading, the class would also struggle as well. I most certainly didn't regret taking this module despite having to awkwardly squeeze into a class of Year 2s and have these Year 2s be like, why is there a USP student here (Those who were in my class will know who I am from this review lol). But then again I think is because I chose the correct prof aka my TWW/WCT prof, which I made a lot of effort to squeeze her classes into my timetable this time. If it's other profs I might have other reservations.

Manageability of Workload

The workload as follows:

1) Participation 15%

2) Oral Presentation 20%. This involves presenting on one of the readings of the module of your choice for a max of 10 minutes. Need to give input on your thoughts about the reading and some discussion questions for the class. But the choosing process was kinda hectic because it is fcfs, so you might want to plan a few readings to pick just in case your top choice as taken.

3) Mid-term essay (1500-2000 words) 25%, based on either 1) Choosing an author from Weeks 1-6 which talked about freedom, comparing their perspective with another author and evaluate its relevance in today's modern world. 2) The relationship between “progress” and “inequality” using two authors from Weeks 1-6. 3) Analyse a current tension in global affairs using authors from Weeks 1-6. A max of 2 additional sources outside of the module can be using for prompt 3 (since you will need citations on the background of the tension). Due End of Recess Week.

4) Final Project (10-15 min video) 40%, to critically examine a global challenge while integrating at least two assigned readings from Weeks 7-13 in the video. The video can be a viva voce, a site visit, a film critique, or something else entirely, so long as it is approved by Prof. Prof doesn't expect some TV-show quality video editing skills, just a simple one will do. (if you need some free-to-use video editing softwares, you can try Da Vinci Resolve but it requires high RAM and some general experience in video editing, otherwise OBS Studio should be good enough) Due End of Reading Week.

I do find the workload pretty manageable, the only thing that takes up more time is the individual assignments and its ideation process, which required a lot of reading and finding videos. For the mid-term essay and final project, do a topic you like and shouldn't be that painful to do (but ofc the topic you do can't be too esoteric if not you will have issues with finding sources). That said, this is coming from a senior who took 12MCs of graded modules. I might seem very free because of my workload but no, I have other things to think about (e.g. final year internship/job applications), so I do admit that there were some lessons where I just skimmed the reading lol. Also, hearsay that other profs for GST allowed students to use as many sources as they want for the mid-term essay, but for Prof McHarry she will insist that you work with two sources only (unless you are doing prompt 3, which is 2+2) because she doesn't want us to stress over writing a lot for the essay.

Ease/Difficulty of attaining grades

The determining factor for the overall module grade should come from the mid-term essay and the final project video (25% and 40% of the module respectively). The rest are class participation (15%) and an oral presentation on one of the readings for the module (20%). I didn't feel that participated a lot in class and my oral presentation was kind of average, but the individual mid-term essay and final project video did pull me up and I did better than expected, especially when I do not have USW knowledge and am from a STEM background.

As someone who had taken Prof McHarry's TWW/WCT module before, I felt that generally she is a prof that gives good grades. But, in NGT, she seems (even) more liberal in giving good grades in NGT than in TWW/WCT itself, maybe because this module isn't focused on writing but more on the module content itself. As Prof McHarry is a writing module prof, she does expect that your essay/final proj video flow to be logical, systematic and well-argued.

Learning Value/Recommendation

I really learned a lot from this mod, esp wrt to understanding global issues using social analysis, and it further enhances what I have learned in Democracy and Inequality mod (by Prof Joel Chow). It allowed me to view social issues with a more holistic lens. But Yes! I agree that given our current (privileged) positions we should contribute something positively to the world and help the marginalised in any way regardless of your background (STEM students can also do something to help society without necessarily using STEM related skills tbh).

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

Tl;dr: It's a requirement of NUSC students (and not USP students, but we can take it to clear HSS Inquiry) to take GST to clear their Global Orientation pillar, so there is no escape from this module. However, you can consider taking GST under Prof McHarry if you want a good and dedicated prof who really cares about her students. Also, it seems that you don't really need USW content to understand or even score well in GST at all, as coming from somebody who did not take USW, a STEM student and still scored well in GST. You definitely need TWW/WCT writing skills to write/plan well your individual assignments.