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NTU's School of Humanities (SoH) is home to six major programmes: Art History, Chinese, English, Linguistics & Multilingual Studies, History and Philosophy. The School offers Graduate Research Degrees in all of these disciplines.
Our aim is to achieve excellence in education and research. Key aspects of graduate studies in the School of Humanities include:
- Global, regional, and comparative perspectives
- Interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches
- Complex cultural awareness
- Contemporary Asian relevance
- International network of researchers
- Broad-based academic training
- Vibrant intellectual social life
Faculty in Art History have a wide range of research interests across different regions and time periods.
[Please check faculty pages for specific areas of focus and potential supervisors: click here for individual faculty bio page]
We have particular strengths in contemporary exhibition histories, experimental new media practices, and transmedial approaches to the study of art histories and visual cultures. Other areas of interest include:
- Art and Architecture in Contemporary Asia
- Art and Technology
- Connective and Comparative Art Histories across the Global South
- Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Art Historical Research and Pedagogy
- Curatorial Strategies
- Exhibition Histories
- Feminisms
- Gender Theories
- Histories of Collecting
- Inter-Asia Referencing and Decolonisng Art Histories and Canons in Southeast Asia
- Material Cultures in Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asia
- Modern Art and Architecture
- Performativity and Performative Practices
Pre-Modern China: Literature, History, and Thought (古代中国：文学、历史、思想); Modern China: Literature, Culture, and History, (现代中国：文学、文化、历史); Linguistics and Chinese Linguistics (语言学与汉语语言学); Translation Studies (翻译研 究); Studies of Ethnic Chinese (华人研究)
English Renaissance Literature; Eighteenth-Century Literature; Literature of the Romantic period; The Nineteenth-Century Novel; Victorian Literature; SE Asian Literature and Culture; Contemporary Fiction; 20th Century Irish Literature; Science and Literature; Contemporary Drama; Postcolonial Studies; Asian American Literature and Film; Film Studies and Asian Cinema; Literary and Critical Theory; Post-Jungian Psychology and Literature; Gender Studies; Creative Writing, Poetry; Medieval Literature; 19th Century American Literature; 20th Century American Literature; Elizabethan Literature; Shakespeare; 19th Century Austral-Asian Literature; Performance Studies; Magical Realism; Historical Materialism; The Long Eighteenth Century
Asia in Global and Transnational Perspectives; Modern and Contemporary China; Sino-Southeast Asian Interactions; Chinese Diaspora and Migration; History of Singapore; South Asia; History of Science, Technology, and Medicine; Business History; Environmental History
Linguistics & Multilingual Studies
Bilingualism and Multilingualism; Child Language Acquisition; Chinese Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Language and Culture; Language and Gender; Language Attitudes and Identity; Language Contact and Language Change; Language Description, Documentation and Typology; Language Maintenance and Language Shift; Language Policy and Language Planning; Morphology; Neurolinguistics; Phonetics and Phonology; Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Syntax; World Englishes
Metaethics and Normative Ethics; Social and Political Philosophy; Contemporary Issues in Philosophy; Classic Chinese Philosophy; New Confucianism; Philosophy of Science; Comparative Philosophy; Philosophy and Culture.
SoH promotes new interdisciplinary research and have six strategic interdisciplinary research clusters. This is a new, exciting area in the study of Humanities. The interdisciplinary clusters involve collaborations with other schools within NTU, researchers and practitioners in Singapore as well as internationally.
Admission Requirements
Applicants must have Bachelor's degree with minimum Honours (Distinction) and its equivalent and the ability to pursue research in the candidate's proposed field of advanced study.
All programmes in SoH do not require a GRE.
For applicants whose native language is not English, a good TOEFL or IELTS is necessary. For applicants whose native language is English but the medium of instruction of the degree is not English, TOEFL or IELTS is necessary. The TOEFL/IELTS scores must be attained within 2 years prior to date of application.
We do not need any TOEFL or IELTS results from applicants who have Bachelor's degrees from universities (must be at least 3 years of study) or Master's degree where English is the medium of instruction. Documentary evidence must be provided for such cases.
Candidates will be interviewed by the subject area postgraduate coordinator(s) to assess the applicant’s suitability for postgraduate studies and for a holistic assessment of his/her academic capacity.
In addition, different subject areas may have specific requirements. Details are available at the subject areas websites.
The following are the minimum score requirements for the above tests:
TOEFL (Internet-Based Test - IBT) : Overall score of 105 with writing score of 23
IELTS (IELTS is preferred over TOEFL): Overall score of 7.0 with writing score of 7.0
For Chinese Programme: Minimum IELTS overall score of 6.5 with writing score of 6.5 and TOEFL overall score of 100 with writing score of 23 (Internet-Based Test – IBT).
The above scores are a guide only and may vary slightly according to the number and quality of applicants in each admission exercise. Meeting the above scores does not guarantee admission to our programme. Admission to the Graduate Programme also depends on the quality of the research proposal and of the application as a whole.
Submit a Thesis before graduation
Period of Candidature can be found here.
Students on scholarship will usually submit their thesis one year before the maximum period of candidature.
Art History
- Coursework Requirement: PhD students are required to take six (6) courses or 18 AUs
- Submit a Thesis before graduation
- Students on scholarship will usually submit their thesis one year before the maximum period of candidature.
Chinese
A PhD candidate is required to complete six enrichment modules approved by his/her supervisor, to attend six seminars, to submit a dissertation of not more than 300,000 Chinese characters, and to take part in an oral defense.
A PhD candidate is required to complete six courses approved by his/her supervisor, to attend all designated events, to pass a confirmation exercise (at a stage between 1 and 2 years of beginning research), to submit a dissertation of between 75,000-85,000 words and to take part in an oral defence.
Submissions for projects in other genres should be discussed with the creative writing coordinator.
History
The PhD degree has three requirements:
- Completion of 6 courses with a CGPA of 3.50
- Passing the Confirmation Exercise
- Satisfactory completion of a dissertation of 75,000 to 85,000 words.
Linguistics and Multilingual Studes
Candidates are required to
- Complete six relevant courses approved by your supervisor
- Submit an in-depth literature review of an approved research topic
- Pass the Confirmation Exercise
- Submission of 75,000 to 85,000 word these and take part in an oral defense
Philosophy
PhD students are required to take six (6) courses. PhD students will be encouraged to take courses in natural sciences, social sciences, and other disciplines in the humanities. Students’ thesis projects must be alongside the strengths of the faculty; each PhD student will also be required to develop a secondary area of competency besides their thesis area.
Upon completion of the coursework, and before writing the thesis, PhD students need to present both a thesis prospectus (approximately 5,000 words) and a secondary area research report (approximately 5,000 words) to a philosophy graduate studies committee for approval. The secondary area research report should demonstrate the student’s competency in an area of philosophy beside his or her thesis area. Both the thesis prospectus and the secondary area research report need to be completed within 18 months after entering the programme. The study is consummated with the submission of a thesis of between 30,000-85,000 words and a successful oral defense.
Application Deadlines
| Deadline for Submission of online application (with required supporting documents) |
August (Semester 1) | 15 November |
January (Semester 2) | 31 July |
Period of Candidature
Feel free to email us if you need help with your application.
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