Nanyang Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS)

The Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) is a key research hub within the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Created first in 2006 under the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, it was re-organized to come under the College in 2010. The aim of CLASS is to promote research excellence in the humanities and social sciences, and to foster inter-disciplinary and collaborative research among faculty under the three Schools in the College. CLASS also provides a platform for interaction with other Schools at NTU, as well as researchers and scholars internationally.

A key focus of the Centre’s work has been to provide an intellectual meeting ground for scholars, as well as to act as a central organizational structure for workshops, seminars, and conferences. Perspectives from art and art history, economics, various treatments of language and literature, history, politics, cognitive and behavioral sciences, philosophy, have been weaved into the scholarship promoted by CLASS, lending to interdisciplinary discourse, which is one of the central tenets of the Centre’s ethos.

​​Another core area of work for CLASS is the building of international research connections in order to promote a spirit of engagement. CLASS has hosted numerous activities which have facilitated interactions between scholars at and outside of NTU. Many of CLASS’s conferences, seminars, and workshops have led to fruitful conversations, collaborative projects and joint publications.