Yale-NUS hosts symposium on Globalising the Liberal Arts

Four-day symposium and workshop to be held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut

Yale-NUS College will host a symposium and workshop, Globalising the Liberal Arts, from 6 – 9 June 2016 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

The symposium and workshop, will bring together approximately 90 thought leaders in higher education from leading liberal arts colleges and universities around the United States to discuss innovation in liberal arts and science education and the future of higher education.

At a time when the liberal arts are frequently met with skepticism in the United States, there is strong interest in developing liberal arts programmes in both Asia and Europe. The symposium and workshop, funded with grants from the Henry Luce Foundation, Teagle Foundation, and the J Y Pillay Global-Asia Programme, will focus on how liberal arts and sciences programmes can offer an international and multidisciplinary foundation for student learning through demanding and cohesive general education courses.

Yale-NUS College, founded by Yale University and the National University of Singapore (NUS), and located in Singapore, aims to redefine liberal arts and sciences education for a complex, interconnected world. The re-imagining of a global curriculum will support the sustainability of US liberal arts education.

“By sharing lessons learned in founding Yale-NUS College, a new liberal arts college in Asia, we aim to discuss how our experience might prove relevant to curricular innovation in the United States. In addition, having recently undertaken a review of our Common Curriculum, we can also explore ways in which the College and other liberal arts institutions might improve their general education programmes, specifically to incorporate Asian topics, themes, and texts into their curricula,” said Professor Pericles Lewis, President and Professor of Humanities, Yale-NUS College.

The symposium, on 6 – 7 June, will include keynote presentations by:

• Andrew Delbanco, Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies, Columbia University
• William Deresiewicz, author, Excellent Sheep;
• Catharine Bond Hill, President, Vassar College;
• Pericles Lewis, President, Yale-NUS College;
• Michael Roth, President, Wesleyan University; and
• Carol Geary Schneider, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities.

The workshop, on 7 – 9 June , will offer an opportunity to do hands-on work for liberal arts and science faculty seeking to re-evaluate and improve their undergraduate curricula.

Since Yale-NUS was founded in 2011, the College has built an intimate, liberal arts college dedicated to undergraduate education. Yale-NUS offers a distinctive curriculum and residential programme that encourages active learning, adaptability and critical thought. The Yale-NUS curriculum and pedagogy are built from scratch by its inaugural faculty to harness the strengths of established liberal arts practices, while introducing Yale-NUS students to the diverse intellectual traditions and cultures of Asia and the world, based on an interdisciplinary approach.

For media enquiries, please contact publicaffairs@yale-nus.edu.sg.

19 June 2020: Outdated links have been removed.