Course summary

This new and exciting two-year master’s program taught by the National University of Singapore and the London School of Economics is designed for students interested in studying Asia from an international perspective. It is also for those interested in decentring international history by studying it from an Asian perspective. The core course during your first year at NUS will introduce you to a wide range of contemporary historical methods, focusing on major historians, current debates about historical practice, theoretical history and historical interpretation. This will be complemented by a choice of electives covering modern Southeast Asian, Singapore, modern East Asia, China, America and modern Europe as well as imperialism and empire, the Cold War, military history, cultural history, and oral history. During your second year at the LSE you will be able to choose from a wide selection of International History courses ranging from the Ottoman Empire to twentieth-century Southeast Asia. Thematically, courses cover everything from war and peace to the history of race and gender. While you will have the option to study European, North American, South American, and African History, this degree allows you to centre your studies on Asian history in all its rich variety. These Asian history courses can be further complemented by specialist options on Asia from the Departments of Economic History, Government, Anthropology, and Geography. You will engage at an advanced level with the latest academic research in the field, and undertake your own research-based term papers and third term dissertation. The dissertation is one of the highlights of this degree, through which you pursue specialist research on a subject with an Asian focus.