Donor-supported Professorships

At Yale-NUS College, prominent scholars with diverse backgrounds and knowledge have enhanced learning within the community. With support from the donor-funded professorships, the College has attracted professors “who are not only excellent teachers, but have brought with them a wealth of experience that has benefitted students and faculty alike”, said Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Social Sciences (Economics) Joanne Roberts.

“They have shared their collective leadership and wisdom generously, mentoring students and junior faculty. As a young college with a young community of scholars, such development opportunities are invaluable,” Prof Roberts added.

The professorships have also enabled its recipients to continue their academic endeavours. Visiting Wong Ngit Liong Professor of Science (Life Sciences) and Dean of Faculty David Post, and J Y Pillay Professors of Social Sciences (Economics) David Jacks and Chris Howell (Politics) shared how rewarding their time at Yale-NUS has been, particularly the level of intellectual discourse within their classrooms, the close-knit bonds within the student community, and their own growth and work at the College.

“I was drawn to Yale-NUS by the prospect of learning from and providing leadership for a College that was creatively and deliberately reimagining liberal arts and sciences education in Southeast Asia,” remarked Dean Post. In addition to the distinct education found within Yale-NUS, he was drawn to returning to Singapore, where he had spent a year as a child, and to provide “opportunities for [his] family to explore new cultures and regions of the world.”

Dean Post is the current Visiting Wong Ngit Liong Professor at Yale-NUS College. Photo taken by Dan Renzetti, Yale University.

Working at Yale-NUS, his first impression was the intense dedication of the faculty to the students and the curriculum. He noted, “The faculty are very deliberate in their curriculum development and pedagogy. They care deeply about how students learn and how that learning is shaped by the environment both within and outside the classroom.”

Dean Post finds working with faculty and helping professors achieve success in the classroom or within their research an extremely fulfilling experience. “Working with faculty is a great joy of serving as Dean of Faculty. It is incredibly rewarding to help faculty, even in small ways, achieve success in the classroom or with their research.” “I also greatly enjoy learning about the scholarship of my colleagues,” he added.

Prof Howell received the Visiting J Y Pillay Professorship to teach at Yale-NUS. Image provided by Prof Howell.

Similarly, Prof Howell has been astounded by the individual students and student community here. “In terms of teaching, I can honestly say that Yale-NUS students are the best students I have taught anywhere in the world in a career as a college professor,” reflected Professor Howell. “Every class still seems new and exciting, and the students bring a special degree of critical attention to each class that keeps me constantly on my toes and always learning something new.”

Prof Howell interacting with his students during Comparative Social Inquiry (CSI), a common curriculum module at Yale-NUS. Image provided by Prof Howell.

Reflecting on the Visiting J Y Pillay Professorship, he remarked that it “has been an extraordinary professional experience.” “It has both energised my teaching, giving me a set of new perspectives to bring back into the classroom at my home institution, and helped me to understand the dynamics of unfamiliar capitalist models and introduce them into my scholarship through the case study research that I have been able to conduct while here… I am tremendously grateful to the J Y Pillay donors and the staff, faculty and students of Yale-NUS College for this opportunity and experience,” Prof Howell added.

Beyond his formal work, Prof Howell was elated to have joined such a “strong, close-knit and resilient community [where] students, staff and faculty are genuinely comfortable around each other and treat each other as equals”. “The students seem to genuinely love it here and they make some of their closest friendships in the first few months of arriving. When sad, tragic or unfortunate events happen, they pull together.”

Prof Jacks received the J Y Pillay Professorship to teach at Yale-NUS College. Image provided by Prof Jacks.

Similar to Prof Howell’s interaction with students, Prof Jacks was “blown away” when he first taught The History of Globalisation during the second semester of Academic Year 2020/2021. He was not only impressed by the level of preparation students came to class with, but additionally more astounded by “the degree to which they could pick up new concepts and material in a short amount of time. What was a bit more surprising was how respectful (to me and one another) and simply fun they were throughout the term.”

Having spent all of his academic working experience within a large research university, Prof Jacks thoroughly enjoyed the intimate teaching experience which the College offers. “I count it as a real privilege to have been able to travel to Singapore and visit Yale-NUS… to continue my research trajectory but refashion my teaching duties into something more meaningful for me and, hopefully, my students.” The different aspects of Yale-NUS “lead to my teaching (at the College) being a distinctly enjoyable endeavour, and I feel lucky to have had this experience,” he said.