Graduate Programmes at NTU School of Humanities

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. 

• 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

Art History

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:

1. Art and Architecture in Contemporary Asia
2. Art and Technology
3. Connective and Comparative Art Histories across the Global South
4. Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Art Historical Research and Pedagogy
5. Curatorial Strategies
6. Exhibition Histories
7. Feminisms
8. Gender Theories
9. Histories of Collecting
10. Inter-Asia Referencing and Decolonisng Art Histories and Canons in Southeast Asia
11. Material Cultures in Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asia
12. Modern Art and Architecture 
13. Performativity and Performative Practices

Chinese (中文系)

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 Literature

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

History

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

Philosophy

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.

Interdisciplinary Research

SoH promotes interdisciplinary research, which is an exciting new area that involves collaborations between disciplines within the school. Our strategic interdisciplinary research clusters include areas such as Environmental Humanities, Medical Humanities, and more. Applicants are encouraged to apply to one of the six core disciplines best suited to their area of research.

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. 

Art History

Chinese

English

History

LMS

Philosophy