GLOBAL CITIZEN+ TRACK
Our flagship Global Experience (GEx) courses offer specially curated programmes in specially selected cities around the world. Students will choose from a variety of themes offered, unique to each city or region. The structure of each GEx is uniquely designed and goes well beyond traditional classwork and will involve activities such as: seminars with guest professors; workshops with practitioners; masterclasses with experts; fireside chats with important personalities; and field visits to pertinent sites such as start-ups, research centres, government offices, cultural and community institutions. Students will be required to participate fully in these curated activities for the entirety of the programme duration.
Each GEx has a theme that leverages the relative strengths of the region and takes place for one month in the summer, with a few preparatory lectures and seminars in the semester before, and assignments due in the semester after.
How does it work?
Students may attend a maximum of two GEx courses: one in Southeast Asia and one in the Global North (Northeast Asia, North America, or Europe). These courses cannot be taken consecutively in the same year.
They may apply to go on GEx at the end of their first, second or third year of study at NUS College. Placements for GEx are available to NUS College students on a competitive basis, with spaces for up to 60% of each cohort made available each year. Every semester, GEx classes in each location have an enrolment of about 20 to 25 students, led on-site by an NUS College faculty member.
Students who accept a GEx offer may then apply for financial support to offset travel cost and local expenses.
Full details will be published in the yearly GEx Information Pack sent to all students before applications open.
CITIES AND THEMES OF GLOBAL EXPERIENCE (GEX) COURSES IN 2027
GEX (GLOBAL NORTH)
Chicago: Agritech and food enterprises in the US Midwest – Dr Jerome Kok
This course will provide us with snapshots of the entire food process from farming to enterprise. The broad aim is to appreciate the interdisciplinarity of how food happens in society. We will encounter sensor and indoor climate-control technologies as well as broader modelling frameworks that provide more large-scale data representation. These components will be contextualised by visits to community farms and neighbourhoods deemed to be of lower commercial value to appreciate a different side to the story of food encounters and experiences. The personal histories and cultures across different demographics ultimately affect the appetite for technologies in their food stories.
Mediterranean: One sea, many shores: culture, diplomacy and belonging – Dr Mariana Losada
For millenia, the Mediterranean has acted not as a barrier but a connective sea, binding Europe, North Africa and Asia through trade, migration, religion and culture. GEx Mediterranean offers a transformative journey across four bases – the French Riviera, Provence, Catalonia and North Africa – through which students read the Mediterranean as one interconnected world while attending to each place’s distinct identity. Much as the South China Sea knits together Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean shows how a shared sea generates both exchange and division. Drawing on sensory and post-colonial approaches, students engage in lectures, workshops, visits and fieldwork exploring borders, memory and belonging.
Nagoya-Sendai-Tokyo: Living through Design: Encounters with Human-centric Cities, Cultures and Technologies – Dr Tan Da Yang
How to design cities not just for people, but with them in mind? In this course across various cities in Japan, students will explore how human-centric designs shapes everyday life in Japan, across physical, cultural and technological domains. Students will examine how built environment, social systems and everyday artefacts reflect principles of inclusivity, accessibility and care. Through field observations, facilitated workshops and guided reflections, students will critically engage with examples of human-centric design within the cities, cultural and technological context. The course invites inquiry into how societies organise for well-being, how users shape design and how design in turn shapes experiences.
Seoul: Soft Power & Public Diplomacy: How Small Nations Build Big Influence – Dr Baek Kyeonghi
GEx Seoul explores how relatively small nations build influence beyond their size through culture, people, ideas, institutions and public diplomacy.
This course invites students to slow down, listen, and reflect. Through selected visits, conversations, and exchanges, we will look beyond Korea’s familiar global image to explore the histories, people, institutions and tensions that have shaped how Korea understands itself and engages with the world. We will encounter not only Korea’s successes but also its challenges and growing pains.
Ultimately, Korea is a lens through which to look back at Singapore. By the end of the course, students will leave Seoul not only knowing more about Korea, but also seeing Singapore with new eyes and asking new questions: How does Singapore understand and tell its own story? Where does our influence come from? And what kind of place do we want Singapore to occupy in the world?
Unlock Korea Rethink Singapore
Shanghai: History, Culture, and Aesthetics – Dr Jane Loo
GEx Shanghai invites students to explore how Shanghai’s cultural and aesthetic landscape reflects its colonial past, Haipai () hybridity and evolving identities. Through reflection walks, museum visits, and contemporary and traditional performances, students will consider how space, atmosphere and design shape perception and expression. Alongside Shanghai’s fast-paced visual culture, students will also engage with traditional Chinese aesthetics such as classical garden design, craft practices and spatial philosophies. This will allow students to reflect on how different environments express changing cultural and aesthetic values. The course combines philosophical and anthropological approaches through observation, analysis and hands-on learning.
Toronto: Diversity and Inclusion in Governance – Dr Bjorn Gomes
Creating inclusive systems of governance which respect diversity is an important aspiration for many democratic societies in a globalised world. GEx Toronto critically examines the complexities involved in creating such systems for a heterogeneous population. Through an interdisciplinary framework, students will explore how narratives concerning diversity and inclusion are constructed and challenged, how communities are legitimised or pathologised by state institutions and why struggles for recognition and autonomy succeed or fail as communities work to fashion unity out of difference. Students will engage in self-directed projects within a curated experiential environment, document accomplishments and contribute to knowledge about Canada.
GEX (SOUTHEAST ASIA)
Bali / Lombok: Marine Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Oceanic Livelihoods – Ms Sam Shu Qin
This course explores community-based management for sustainable natural resource harvesting and alternative livelihoods for coastal communities. It focuses on how fishermen collectives in Bali and Lombok transitioned from environmentally destructive practices to becoming leaders in conservation and social enterprises. Students will engage with marine conservation organisations to learn about the global marine wildlife trade, sustainable management practices for marine life such as octopuses, turtles and manta rays, and efforts to restore their ecosystems. These real-world interactions offer insights into the challenges and successes of marine conservation, and lessons that can be applied to Southeast Asia and beyond.
Bandung – Yogyakarta: Creative Cities – Dr Kiven Strohm
In this GEx, we explore two cities that are renowned centres for creative economy in Indonesia: Bandung and Yogyakarta (Jogja). Each city embraces creative economy strategies with different emphases. To start, Bandung takes a design-centred approach, working mainly through institutional actors, from the private sector to institutions of higher learning, to engage local communities to foster sustainable design innovations around waste and other environmental issues. Jogja, the art capital of Indonesia, on the other hand, takes a more bottom-up approach, with local communities spearheading creative solutions such as traditional crafts of batik and Wayang to street art and contemporary art as avenues to foster economic inclusion, social cohesion and sustainability. Through a hands-on approach, we will learn how Indonesian designers and artists in each of these cities work with local communities to foster social cohesion, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development, all key aspects driving creative cities.
Bangkok-KL: Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) – Dr Roweena Yip
GEx Bangkok-KL explores how intangible cultural heritage is practised, transmitted and documented in Thailand and Malaysia in order to examine the relationship between culture, identity and community. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) refers to non-physical practices and knowledge that are part of a community’s cultural identity. Immersing themselves in sights, sounds and smells off the beaten track, students will analyse and evaluate the impact of food, the performing arts and architecture on local communities through immersive activities including guided tours, food ethnography and digital archiving workshops. Students will take a comparative view and evaluate different perspectives on ICH in both countries.
Chiang Mai: Food, Culture, and Sustainability – Associate Professor Peter Vail
GEx Chiang Mai focuses on the production/consumption of food and how it connects to society, culture and environment in Thailand. We explore these themes using a hands-on approach, in which students will have the opportunity to participate in food production (including agriculture), learn how to cook a variety of local cuisines and to examine how food consumption/production relates to cultural sensibilities, informs ‘gastronationalism’, and impacts socioeconomic change.
We will engage with an array of partners, including food entrepreneurs, conservationists, farmers and other primary producers, all of whom contribute to Thailand’s aim of being ‘the Kitchen of the World’.
Chonburi: Tourism, Development, Everyday Life – Dr Lee Chee Keng
Why do ordinary places – beaches, markets, cafes, spas, islands, universities, factories and neighbourhoods – become tourist experiences, and who benefits when they do? This course examines tourism as a force that reshapes development, culture and everyday life. Focusing on Thailand’s Eastern region, students will study heritage, wellness, food, entertainment, business and education tourism in relation to investment, infrastructure, labour, sustainability and representation. Through field visits, site observation and conversations with local, industry and community stakeholders, students will learn to analyse tourism critically as both lived experience and development strategy.
Manila-Tacloban: Disaster Resilience and Climate Adaptation – Dr Shelley Tuazon Guyton
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-affected countries in the world, as well as one of the “frontline” communities facing the impacts of climate change. In this GEx, we explore how people live with vulnerabilities to environmental disaster in the age of climate crisis and what it means for them to adapt and become resilient. Students engage with NGOs, grassroots organisations, scientists, writers and disaster-affected people across two cities of the Philippines-Manila (as the National Capital Region) and Tacloban, Leyte (a provincial city). From this vantage, we compare issues and anticipations meaningful across different localities. The course is arranged so that students encounter the diverse ways vulnerability, resilience and adaptation are understood, focusing on inequality and inclusivity in disaster risk reduction practices.
Upper Mekong: Environment and Sustainability: Sciences meets Policy – Dr Shaun Lin
GEx Upper Mekong examines how Laos and Yunnan (China) manage their environmental and sustainability issues across different physical and human environments and the challenges they face. In particular, we focus on the Mekong River between these two countries and learn how it is further shaped by additional transboundary activities and hydropower development. The field course also exposes students the wider environmental and sustainability topics concerning the key sites of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Jinghong and Kunming. The course is interdisciplinary in nature, with a focus on STEM issues. Students learn to engage scientific data backed with an overview of the local and regional politics, and gain critical insights on how environmental and sustainability science meets policy in a public context.
Vietnam: People, Culture, and Nature – Dr Cheng Yi’En
This multi-city GEx takes students on a journey through the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The course uses an interdisciplinary lens, leveraging creative arts and social sciences to explore how individuals, households and communities organise their lives around evolving spatial, cultural and natural systems. Students develop a critical appreciation of how people respond to and innovate amid rapid development and environmental change. Travelling across villages and cities, they engage with topics such as cultural identities, rural-urban transitions and environmental livelihoods through ethnographic activities and photography projects.