Best Wishes for the Holiday Season!

Here's wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a wonderful year ahead!

Peace out,

The NHAA Team

Camino a la Modernidad The Path to Modernity: Mexican Modern Painting

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Medallion, 1948,
Oil/Masonite, 50 cm x 40 cm, Private Collection
Camino a la Modernidad, The Path to Modernity: Mexican Modern Painting traces major developments in Mexican art from the 1900s to the 1950s, where Mexican society underwent tremendous changes in social and political spheres that impacted much of its artistic expression. The Mexican Revolution (1910) laid the foundation for a new artistic movement, Mexican Mural Renaissance, which attempted to bridge the class divide in the construction of a national identity and aesthetic, through bringing art to the masses in the form of highly accessible, outdoor public art murals. The exhibition features over 70 works from important Mexican public and private collections, including works by renowned mural artists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Roberto Montenegro, Rufino Tamayo, Maria Izquierdo and Frida Kahlo.

15 NOVEMBER 2009 TO 3 JANUARY 2010

(Information taken from Singapore Art Museum website)

Performance Opportunity Wanted for Concert Band this XMas

Feel the festive warmth and joy with this holiday season with a youthful and exuberant Christmas performance by the Marsiling Secondary School Concert Band! A Singapore Youth Festival Gold Award recipient, the Concert Band is looking for more opportunities to showcase its talents in  public. If your organisation would like the concert band to enliven this Christmas season or other events with their exciting tunes, please contact Ms Irene Nai at nai_irene@moe.edu.sg before 25 November 2009.

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Teach For India

Hey everyone, if you're looking for an opportunity to expand your horizon and do some good at the same time, read about the Teach For India programme in Pranay Puranik's message below.

Teach For India is a movement that aims to narrow the educational gap in India by placing the most outstanding college graduates and young professionals, of all academic majors and careers, in low-income schools to teach for two years. In June 2009, Teach For India will place Fellows in English-medium, primary schools in Mumbai and Pune (India). By its fifth year, Teach For India aims to place hundreds of Fellows in the country’s top metropolitan cities and their surrounding rural areas.
The Teach For India Fellowship is a two-year paid assignment. Throughout the Fellowship, Teach For India Fellows help close the achievement gap by leading their students to significant academic gains. In the second year of their fellowship, Fellows plan and implement a school-wide project to address one major obstacle to learning in their community.

As such, Teach for India is looking for Fellows who have demonstrated leadership, and are inclined to make a commitment to the community. Students in their final year of under-graduate or post-graduate studies and young professionals are eligible to apply.

Why should you join Teach For India?
Teach For India offers you the chance to build applicable leadership skills while making a real difference in tackling one of India’s most pressing challenges – educational inequity. By presenting you with one of the most difficult challenges of your life, the Fellowship helps you develop leadership skills that will make you a high-demand candidate for any career. You will leave the Fellowship literally ready for anything – and with the experience to advocate for a future in which all children have access to an excellent education.

Opportunities after Teach for India:
Teach For India will support their alumni whether they choose to remain in the education sector as teachers, principals, or NGO leaders, enroll in post-graduate schools, work in the corporate sector or pursue literally any path they wish. Teach For India alumni staff maintains relationships with top schools, universities, NGOs and corporates throughout the country and abroad, and helps Fellows connect with these opportunities after the Fellowship. Teach For India has already established close ties with the Indian School of Business, Thermax Group, S.P. Jain, Unilever, Citibank, ICICI, HDFC and McKinsey & Company, among many others. Teach for All, under which Teach for India falls, has been supported by reputed names such as HSBC, Dell, Visa, Google, Credit Suisse.

We believe that the experience and exposure that you will receive in your two years at Teach For India will open several doors, and a wide spectrum of opportunities for you. As the experience of Teach For America alumni shows, Teach For India alumni will be in high demand in any sector because they have the experience of overcoming immense challenges and have developed widely applicable leadership skills.

All those interested in this program can either refer to Teach for India’s website: http://www.teachforindia.org/ or e-mail me at puranikpranay at gmail.com.

Thanking you

Best Regards,

Pranay Puranik

Head Campus Ambassador
Teach for India (Singapore Region)

Public Talk by the Engaging Prof Timothy Barnard - and drinks afterwards

For those who have been taught by Prof Barnard, or even just interacted with him, you will know what a witty and interesting person he is. I personally have always found his lectures wholly absorbing and very informative. Therefore, I would highly recommend that you make time to attend his eagerly anticipated public lecture on pre-war Singapore films. Don't miss it, register now! Email  nhb_nm_lectures@nhb.gov.sg to register.

We are also meeting for drinks at Novus Bar after the lecture. Join us, and call your friends along, for a chillax evening!

Best,
Mei Yi

Information is as follows:

The Lighter Side of History: Pre-War Singapore Film and the Changing Landscape of Technology and Nation
Date: 23 Nov 2009
Venue: The Salon, Level 1, National Museum of Singapore
Time: 7 pm
Admission is free
To register, please email: nhb_nm_lectures@nhb.gov.sg

Lecture Outline:

In 1940 and 1941, the Shaw Brothers produced 8 Malay language films in Singapore at their newly built Jalan Ampas studio. These films not only represented the beginning of a sustained film industry in Singapore - which was reestablished after 1945 - they reflected the ideological and technological landscape of the island on the eve of Japanese Occupation. This lecture will highlight plots, stars, and history behind these eight films while examining how the audience and filmmakers understood their impact and importance on a multi-ethnic society like Singapore. In the process, participants will understand how film and new technologies, as well as a little known period of the nation's cultural history, can transform our society's cultural landscape.

Speaker's Biography:

Timothy P. Barnard is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore.His main area of research is on the cultural and environmental history of Southeast Asia, with particular attention on the Malay world. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on Malay film in Singapore, and is currently working on a book on Malay film from 1940-1967

Novus Bar & Courtyard

Be Heard!

What do you think Alumni should be doing?
What kind of activities/events would you be interested to take part in/come for?
How can we do better?

We'd love to hear from you. So let your voice be heard!
Feel free to post comments here on the above questions or anything else alumni-related. If you're shy, you can always drop us an email at nushistoryalumni@gmail.com
For a start, you can also take a poll on this site (look to your right)
Give us your feedbacks, tell us your ideas. Of course, if you want to tell us how in awe you are with what we've done so far, we'd welcome that as well! ;)

Batam Trip for History Alumni

Let's Go Gallivanting in Batam!




When? 7-8 Nov 2009
How much? $90 for accommodation and return ferry and Go-Kart ride and traditional massage!
When to RSVP? 27 Sept (so we can make reservations la)
RSVP to...? nushistoryalumni@gmail.com...Alternatively, u can leave a comment on this post!

See yas!

We want you at NHAA!

Wanna be part of an exciting team?
Wanna make a difference in establishing alumni relations?
Wanna give back to the department?
Wanna reconnect with your professors and classmates?
Then join us!
Email us at nushistoryalumni@gmail.com with the following information:
Name
Contact number
Year of graduation
Occupation
Email

Join us because in NHAA, we believe that together, we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Reunion for Class of 2008 at Zsofi's Tapas Bar

On 3rd July 2009, the Class of 2008 had a small gathering cum reunion at a cosy, quaint place called Zsofi's Tapas Bar in Little India. Those who came had a relaxing timeafter work just chilling and catching up with one another. The crew had fun tokkok like old times and plan for more reunions ahead.

The gang: L-R: David, Amy, Adhana, Wani, Amos, Kok Boon, Melissa

Interested in holding a reunion for your class?
Drop us a mail at nushistoryalumni@gmail.com and we can help to organize and facilitate.
Karaoke anyone? ;)

Host Search

Interested?
Find out more at:
http://historyasia.com/Makeitonhistory/makehistory.aspx

Reunion: Calling all History Graduate Class of 2008!

This July, it is fully 1 year after our graduation! To celebrate, catch up, chill out and tok kok like old times, we've reserved the cosy carpet corner at the Zsofi Tapas Bar just for us! Let's set this date for drinks and tapas. Please RSVP to nushistoryalumni@gmail.com by 28 June 2009. See you there!


3 July 2009 Friday
Zsofi Tapas Bar on 68 Dunlop Street
@8pm

By 2008-ers for 2008-ers

Map and directions to Zsofi Bar

Hair Down, Hats Up (Part 3)

Mad Hatter is our first ever event after the new NHAA committee was formed. The idea of reviving this dormant tradition with a twist was thrown up by Dr Mark Emmanuel. For us, we hoped that Mad Hatters had been a time to bring people together again.


Mad Hatters was a time of reconnection for former classmates....



...for teachers and former students....




...and for alumni to meet the soon-to-be-alumni!



It was a celebration of our common pursuit of and love for History

HISSOC in full force

Everyone's beloved professor expounding on History of the Hons batch

It was a time for a life-long alumnus to share the driving motivation behind her passion for alumni work

Mrs Tan Suan Imm

We hope that Mad Hatters will be a springboard for many more events to come where alumni can gather once again to rekindle ties, build new friendships and give back to the university. Thanks all, for your overwhelming support!



Mad Hatters is brought to you by:

The NHAA: L to R - Mei Yi, Dr Mark Emmanuel aka the Mastermind, Mrs Tan Suan Imm (Guest of Honour), Kok Boon, Joanne, Fiona

Special thanks to:

Sound: Eusoff Audioworks - Andrew & Chang Yong



Photography: Eusoffworks - Joshua



Photography: Eusoffworks - Jing Wei

See everyone in our next Alumni event!

nushistoryalumni@gmail.com

Hatters on Parade (Part 2)

The History gang came our decked in a wide array of headgear on Mad Hatters 2009. Here are the list of models who had been captured by our trigger happy photographers (thanks Joshua and Jing Wei!):

I'm wearing a supped up version of my NS hat

I am replicating the bushido spirit to survive the final stretch of my Hons year

Dr Kaneshiro in the presence of Tallness

Hey, who's stepping on my head?

Who says commies and court jesters can't get along?

Lets kill this clown!

All together now!

Cheese!

Our lovely emcee for the night - in her tweeny hat

Cheers, people!

Maryam and Yu: Oh come on, at least PRETEND that u're scared

And the winner of the Best Hat is....*drum rolls* Nicholas with a half eaten head!

Post to be continued

Mad about Hatters (Part 1)

It was Friday the 13^th. Eileen stared uneasily at the lift doors in front of her. One by one, emerged one bizarre character after another. A resurrected Hitler, a witch, a man partially eaten by a shark. Lingering around Eileen’s table, their ranks swelled as they were joined by more unconventional-looking people.

Sharks, I'm still shorter than Yokes

Since the History bunch are not ones to suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia (which actually means fear of Friday the 13^th!), they have turned up in full force for the inaugural Mad Hatters 2009! And Eileen was there, of course, to graciously help at the event.

I come as a Hammer

See, that's how you look with your invisible hat

The new NUS History Alumni Association (NHAA) committee kicked off its events calendar of 2009 with a revival of a dormant tradition. Whilst before, the entire graduating class would don their graduation garb to be photographed with their professors, this time the entire History community – professors, students and alumni – came together to celebrate the impending Commencement of the Honours class – albeit with a mad hat!

Garbed in graduation gown...but with a mad hat in hand

One for posterity

Heck the mortarboards...

Cause this is so much more colourful!

Post to be continued....