The symposium will explore the lessons, successes, and challenges of global liberal arts education. Bringing together a diverse group of educators representing different experiences and models of global liberal arts education, the symposium will have a particular focus on Asia.

With a programme that includes keynote addresses for the broader community, panel sessions and focused workshop opportunities, the symposium will offer an inclusive discussion on globalised higher education in an increasingly unstable world.

The symposium is arranged around three main themes:

• Liberal arts education in a time of geopolitical risk: How do young, internationally focused institutions handle vulnerabilities to unprecedented global instability? How securely are institutions embedded in their local environment?
• Balancing the global with the regional: How do global institutions of higher education operate in different cultural and political contexts? How have these institutions balanced the local with the global in their partnerships, curricula, and messaging?
• Undergraduate education, tradition, and innovation: How do traditional general education approaches translate into specific cultural contexts, and what innovations can emerge? What values and aspirations do different institutions share, and which elements and structures are distinctive?

Keynote Speakers 

Professor Lily Kong, Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Social Sciences, and President, Singapore Management University 

Dr Marcia A. Grant, Provost (Retired), Ashesi University, Ghana

Panel Speakers 

Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Honorary Professor of Humanities, University of Hong Kong

Dr Insung Jung, Visiting Research Fellow, Education Research Institute, Seoul National University

Professor Kristopher Olds, Professor, Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Dr Kyaw Moe Tun, President, Parami University, Myanmar

Associate Professor J. Mira Seo, Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature), and Director, Common Curriculum, Yale-NUS College, Vice Provost, Fulbright University Vietnam

Professor Naoko Shimazu, Head of Research Faculty, International Institute of Advanced Study, Tokyo College, University of Tokyo

Professor Nirmala Rao, Vice Chancellor, Krea University, India

Professor Shalini Randeria, President and Rector, Central European University, Budapest, Vienna, and New York

Programme Committee

Associate Professor J. Mira Seo, Symposium Chair; Associate Professor of Humanities (Literature), and Director, Common Curriculum, Yale-NUS College

Professor Joanne Roberts, Professor of Social Sciences (Economics), and President, Yale-NUS College

Dr Trisha Craig, Senior Lecturer of Social Sciences (Sociology and Political Science), and Vice President (Engagement), Yale-NUS College

Associate Professor Nur Amali Ibrahim, Associate Professor of Social Sciences (Anthropology), and Head of Studies, Anthropology, Yale-NUS College

Associate Professor Khoo Hoon Eng, Associate Professor of Science (Life Sciences), and Rector, Yale-NUS College

Ms Alyson Rozells, Associate Director, Alumni Affairs and Strategic Events, Yale-NUS College

About the logo

The symposium’s logo is conceptualised and designed by Louis Lu (Class of 2020), in consultation with the programme committee. The visual identification is inspired by the dougong, which is a unique architectural element of interlocking wooden brackets that reflects the symposium’s theme of innovation and resilience. Innovation is represented by a circle, both in reference to the concept of ‘inventing the wheel’ and forward momentum. Resilience is represented by a hexagon, one of the strongest and most efficient shapes.

Watch the full recording here: