Yale-NUS hosts global liberal arts education symposium

Yale-NUS College will host a symposium on Learning from Global Liberal Arts Education: Innovation and Resilience, from 11 – 13 January 2024.

The symposium will explore the lessons, successes, and challenges of a global liberal arts education and bring together a diverse group of educators representing different experiences and models of the global liberal arts education with a particular focus on Asian perspectives. The programme line-up includes keynote addresses from distinguished speakers, panel sessions and focused workshop opportunities, examining the role of globalised liberal arts education in today’s volatile environment.

The keynote speakers for the symposium are Dr Marcia A. Grant, Provost (Retired) from Ashesi University, and Professor Lily Kong, Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Social Sciences, and President, Singapore Management University (SMU).

Sharing her thoughts on being invited for the symposium, Dr Grant said, “I am delighted to return to Singapore after thirty-five years. So much has happened in the development of universities and the liberal arts worldwide. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences of new universities in Africa, Asia and Europe.”

On 11 January, Dr Grant’s keynote address will focus on the different models of liberal arts education developed by different cultures and institutions, and the challenges faced in the process.

Prof Kong’s keynote address on 12 January will focus on the power of appropriately contextualising liberal arts education.

Prof Kong elaborated on her address, “I adopt the view that all knowledge is situated – it is shaped by the position of the knowledge producer and indeed, the knowledge consumer. In this sense, knowledge is always particular to context. Especially in the liberal arts, this is an important insight to embed among students. The very delivery of liberal arts education deserves to be contextualised.”

The symposium is arranged around three main themes:

• Balancing the global with the regional: How do global education institutions 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?
• 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?

Leading up to the conference, educators and scholars from across the region have been invited to submit presentations on the three main themes, which will be discussed in panel sessions throughout the symposium.

Among the speakers include Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Honorary Professor of Humanities from University of Hong Kong, Dr Insung Jung, Visiting Research Fellow from Education Research Institute at Seoul National University, and Professor Nirmala Rao, Vice Chancellor from Krea University.

To foster academic networking and scholarly exchange across the region and beyond, Yale-NUS College has invited scholars in Asia to attend the symposium. One of the scholars, Dr Renante D. Pilapil, Dean at the School of Arts and Sciences Ateneo de Davao University, shared his thoughts on the event, “As an advocate of liberal arts education in the Philippines, I am eager to learn from the unique experiences of other educators on the field in Asia. I am especially interested in how Asian universities design their undergraduate general education curriculum so that the aim of producing what John Stuart Mill calls “capable and cultivated human beings” is achieved.”

Professor Joanne Roberts, President of Yale-NUS College said, “We hope that the symposium will serve as a dynamic forum where scholars, and academics gather to exchange insights on the experiences, achievements, and hurdles encountered in the global liberal arts education environment. We look forward to hosting and fostering inclusive discourse with fellow educators amidst the volitale gobal landscape.”

The symposium will be held at the Yale-NUS College Performance Hall and keynote addresses will also be livestreamed on Zoom.

For more information on the full conference programme, presentation abstracts and speakers profiles, please visit https://www.yale-nus.edu.sg/events/learning-from-global-liberal-arts-education-innovation-and-resilience-yale-nus-college-symposium/

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