Anonymous AY23/24 Sem 2

About the Instructor

**Before I start off the mod review, let me preface that this review was written by an audit student. I did not do the assignments but I still attended all the lessons**

I might be biased cos I already took his Democracy and Inequality module, his USS2105 modulet (a mod of USP times), and his Brainfood+. But anyways Prof Joel is very knowledgeable, friendly, patient and understanding. He might look aloof but actually he can be very lame and funny (eg. him sending a Crash Landing on You heart sticker in the module group chat). If you do not understand the concepts, you can just Telegram him about it and he will explain them again in a longggggggg message. Or you see something on the internet about love and don't understand it, he can perhaps explain it to you. He uses his own real life examples of him and his relationship with his wife to explain certain concepts and make it more relatable. He's also nice enough to be your references for jobs (which he likes to say it at the end of the mod, really). Can tell that he really want to help students in any way possible. 

Prof usually posts summaries of the lesson but this sem...perhaps it's the first iteration of the module or he's too busy but he forgot to post the summaries after a while LOLOLOL. Hopefully prof can get it ready for future sems and just ctrl c ctrl v his summaries.

Content (Structure/Organization)

Finally after 6 semesters since he mentioned that he wanted to teach What is Love?, it is officially a module. Yes, he had been saying that he wanted to teach this module since ages ago but I guess after all the CHS and USP becoming NUSC things, this module is official. 

This module is in its first iteration, so it would be safe to assume that the organisation of the module might be messy. It's still relatively ok, you get to learn how the way we view love is shaped by biological, social, environment forces etc. and how different humanities scholars viewed love. You also get to learn about AI chatbots in love, and watch Greta Gerwig's Little Women in class. Cool! But I felt that the content was still kinda lacking in something (which I do not have the vocabulary for it). Perhaps it's because the nature of love is difficult to teach. Or I had too high expectations since I really liked his Democracy and Inequality mod LOL. Particularly, for this semester, he was away for conference for the first two lessons so content did ""shrunk"" a bit. Hopefully when he teaches the mod in future semesters there will be more content and cogency. 

Also, prof also provides Zoom online links to those who can't make it to the lesson (for whatever reason, like sickness), records them and uploads the recordings onto Canvas. Really nice of him, because most profs wouldn't record their sessions. I also think that he recorded so that he can review his own lessons, esp when this is the first iteration. 

Accessibility

The readings were quite accessible,. Prof Joel is a philosopher by training; he does cover theories from sociology, philosophy, biology etc. and he makes those topics simple to understand for those without a background in these topics. Coming from a Life Sciences major, I actually didn't really like the way he explain the biological pathways of love (which involved all the dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and neurological pathways which he is most certainly not familiar with), but then again he still explains it correctly, just not the way I would explain in layman terms to other people. I do really want to laud prof for his attempt to explain the biological account of love, among other things 

Manageability of Workload

**The rating for the workload of the course from an audit student pov assumes 1) my experience with Prof Joel's Democracy and Inequality mod, and 2) my experience taking 5 mods in a usual sem, as I was away for a graded internship this sem**

The workload as follows (as stated in his assessment guidelines):

1) Class Participation 10%

2) Forum Posts 5% (2 posts + 1 reply by week 13)

3) Mid-Term Assignment 25% (Due end of week 7), rewrite option available: 

Choose to do either a) Evaluative Summary, b) Issues Analysis Report, c) Research Proposal

4) Group Project 20% (Presentations on weeks 11 & 12): 

In groups of 3-5, situate your understanding of love within the Singapore context. Consult prof on the topic before doing the presentation. 

5) Final Assignment 35% (Due 5th May 2024): 

Choose to do either: 

a) Final Essay (2.5k words), 

b) Video Essay (no longer than 10 minutes with a 300-500 word writeup of the editing choices you made, explaining what you chose to retain and what you chose to leave out.), 

c) Creative Writing and Analysis (poem, a short story of not more than 1,000 words, or a short film of max 5 minutes + analysis (1.5k words) of the poem, short story, or film.)

Prof Joel does the gives 2-day extensions (without question) if you need them. Honestly just by looking at the workload it seems less intense that his Democracy and Inequality module where we had to submit group assignments once every few weeks. 

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades

As mentioned earlier, I audited the module so I cannot comment the overall grading for this module. But generally from my experience with Prof Joel in Democracy and Inequality module is that he is very liberal in handing out good grades in class. A- and above is very possible if you did well for most components. If you happen to get B+ and below...err maybe it's because of the midterm/grp proj/final project 

Learning Value/Recommendation

Uhhh you won't come out of the module knowing the answer to "What is Love?", you might need to synthesise that answer by yourself. But at least this module provided me a better understanding of the forces around me shaping my view of love. It might had also unintentionally make me not want to pursue love for the sake of ensuring human survival or that "people are better in love than single" (amatonormativity, a term you will learn in class) but for other means oops. Ofc this is on me

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

Tldr: Prof's good, module's ok and definitely will improve overtime. Importantly, don't expect prof to provide you the answer to "What is Love?", cos I also think that prof doesn't have a concrete answer to that either.  

Anonymous (2) AY22/23 Sem 1

About the Instructor

Prof say 'err' alot. but i think quite kind and understanding. feel like she got put in alot of effort.

Content (Structure/Organization)

Quite structured. what we are doing for each session very clearly delineated right from the get go. unit 1 is scaffolding for unit 2 so i liked that progression. 

Manageability of Workload

Quite heavy in terms of understanding the readings.

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades

Generally did quite acceptable for the things she gave us grades for.

Learning Value/Recommendation

Out of my five mods i think i learnt most from this mod. but i did feel like i was majoring in human trafficking and labour migration

Chuan Kai (@exetr) AY20/21 Sem 1

About the Instructor

Dr Leung is an extremely nice and friendly professor! She is able to explain concepts in a detailed manner that many of us were comfortable with plus she never hesitates to answer any possible queries we may have about the content at hand. Furthermore, she actively encourages us to share any perspectives we might have about the topic being discussed. She is also very encouraging towards our efforts which is nice, but I felt that she may have held back a bit of criticism in her comments for my papers (many praises but ends up with a b+ for the paper lol). One piece of advice in this area would be to make full use of consultation sessions with prof to understand how your essays can be further improved upon. One thing I really appreciate about Prof Leung is the way she structures her lessons. For me this became very helpful towards the second half of the semester. I felt that the way she ordered the different scholarly views made it flow (for the lack of a better word) extremely well and helped me to fully understand the implications, benefits and assumptions of those views. 

Content (Structure/Organization)

The module is divided into two parts, where the first half of the semester focuses on human trafficking, specifically in the Indian and Nepalese forced prostutition and sea slavery in Thailand. The second half takes a step back and looks at a multitude of scholarly views  about the core idea of labour migration (whether it is permissible, what should be considered exploitativive, etc). There are also some parts of her lesons where she spent time elaborating about the fundementals of writing such as making and supporting sound arguments. Every lesson focuses on a set of readings, but within lessons, prof usually takes a step back after introducing and talking a bit about the readings before letting us continue the discussions, occasionally stepping in when we raise questions

Accessibility

For someone that had 0 prior exposure to such topics along with no idea how to write academic papers, it was very manageable, just make sure that you go in with an open mind

Manageability of Workload

Readings wise, I found the assigned articles/journals before every lesson to be manageable with some minor exceptions (Marx and his ideologies of labour). It is best to ensure some time is spent in completing the readings before the lessons otherwise I feel you may not have a very productive discussion in lessons. Among the two main papers, research questions for the first one are provided by prof so that narrows down the scope for you to focus on, whereas you would have to come up with your own research question through engaging with some sources that are covered in class. Workload for the second paper may be quite daunting due to the sheer amount of possible content for you to analyse and write about but even then I didn't lose significant amounts of sleep over it. Despite this, I felt that prof schedules her lessons effectively with regards to ensure that we are not suddenly overloaded with having to rush essays. Throughout the semester prof would spend some time in splitting us up into small groups to discuss and develop our thoughts about topics covered. I felt that this helped to generate some potential ideas about what we could do/how we could structure our papers. Nearer to the deadlines for the papers, she would allocate time for peer review of our paper outlines or drafts which definitely helped me in correcting some glaring holes in my paper. These activities (if you do them properly) do definitely help in the process of writing your long papers.

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades

I think it is definitely possible to score good grades, although it may take a bit of time to perfect your writing skills into what the prof may be looking for.

Learning Value/Recommendation

This module has provided me with many new perspectives on the issue of global human trafficking and labour migration in a local context. It was an opportunity to explore the different ways in which trafficking and migration permeates the global economy and what causes we can attribute to it.

Anonymous AY19/20 Sem 1

About the Instructor

Prof Leung is very nice and cares a lot about her students' wellbeing. She is also very knowledgeable, approachable and helpful, but for consultations you should go prepared in order to get the most out of it. (e.g. asking her about parts of your essay you feel unsure about) I would say that when she reviews and comments on your papers, she looks more into the general aspects of your paper (like argument flow, proper substantiation, writing style), and is not super detail-oriented, but this module would definitely still teach you the basic fundamentals of academic essay writing.

Content (Structure/Organization)

Module is divided into two main parts. First half is on modern-day human trafficking, second half is on low-skilled labour migration (which is more of a grey area). The module information on the USP website is largely accurate so refer to that for more details.

Manageability of Workload

There are two main papers that make up 70% of your grade. For my semester, Paper 1 was quite guided in nature with possible research questions and the sources given to us, enabling us to focus purely on writing the essay. Paper 2 requires you to formulate your own research question and look for your own sources. In addition to that we had 2 short reflection papers (which I liked because it makes you think about what you've learnt in the module), and a short paper based on a specific reading. Comparing to my friends, I would say that this WCT is one of the lighter ones in terms of workload (only 2 main papers, one of which is very guided), plus the content is more approachable in the sense that it covers something very concrete and not abstract. But of course this doesn't mean it's easy - prepare to spend a whole lot of time and effort thinking hard and writing your essay, as well as going through the assigned readings before class. Reflection 2 was a bit annoying because the submission is around the time you need to mug for finals so get it done earlier and don't procrastinate like me. Overall, I think the module is structured quite well in terms of content delivery and assignments which have deadlines which are well spread out.

Additional Comments/Word of Advice

It's important to have some interest in the subject matter (human trafficking and low wage labour migration) before taking this module! Also, don't leave essay writing to the last moment or you will regret it (you need time to think of ideas and refine your essay properly, with fresh perspectives) Lastly, I found the peer review sessions to be exceedingly helpful in improving your essay, so put in the proper effort beforehand!