Prizes

Every year a panel of judges comprising Fellows awards prizes for the best student work conducted through the University Town Education Programme (UTCP) in the Calendar Year at Tembusu.

These prizes are for the Best Essay, the Best Creative Work and the Best Miscellaneous Work.

The Best Essay Prize is for an individual work that involves a substantial amount of written text, with a clearly recognisable ‘voice’ that presents an argument - an idea or conclusion arrived at by working through certain materials. Essays will be considered in terms of how well they are written and the risks they take, as well as their originality and intellectual engagement.

The Best Creative Work Prize is for an individual or collective work that ventures into the space of art and engages its audience in that manner. This could be installations, interventions in public space, creative writing, performances with or without proposal, visual design, painting, object, video, photograph, poster, website, magazine, etc.. The work should be original, aimed at provoking thought and questions, and technically well executed.

The Best Miscellaneous Work Prize is for all kinds of student work that do not fit into the Essay and Creative Work categories. Given the potentially very varied nature of submission, the onus is on the lecturer to highlight how the student work they nominate meets the standard of excellence that operates in their particular course and the assignments associated with it.

Calendar Year 2020

Best Essay: AY 2020/21 Semester 1

Nominated

*Winner

Tan Yan Rong, Eilun for “Knowledge and Intelligence as Communities in Cooperation” (UTS2100: Intelligence and Singapore Society)

This is a beautifully-written, accessible, yet thought-provoking comparative analysis of collective versus individual intelligence. We were impressed by Yan Rong’s originality and the diversity of interesting examples she used to build her thesis. The essay displays an impressive breadth of knowledge about literary and theatrical works. The critique advanced against the education system is cogent and incisive – there are many insightful comments, verging on the poetic, that elevate the argument. Overall, the essay succeeds in raising further questions about intelligence at the intersection of culture, history, and education. The stance taken by the essay is lucid and compelling.

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Best Essay: AY 2019/20 Semester 2

Nominated

*Winner

Wong Mun Yee “Digital Legacies: Do You Believe in Life after Death?” (UTC1102S: Living and Dying in the Internet Age)

The essay advances a highly sophisticated reading of humanity and technology. The thesis is strong and the delivery is coherent. It deals critically with Forster’s short story and provides a compelling interpretation of the future of humanity against the backdrop of a ‘technologically mediated life’.  Sources are used strategically—the essay’s mobilisation of media theorists like van Dijck is convincing and adds layers to the argument. Overall, the essay not only succeeds in engaging with Forster in an incisive manner, it has also managed to overturn Forster’s critique of technology without reducing it to a specious ‘man vs machine’ divide. Turning a critique into a celebratory discourse requires a high level of awareness and sensibility.

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Best Creative Work: AY 2020/21 Semester 1

Nominated

*Winner

Cheng Zaiyang Lucas for “Altered Motion: Biopolitical Influence of COVID-19 on Physical Behaviour” (UTC2113: Gaming Life)

Juxtaposing essay, photographs, drawing, and installation art, this project conveys a sophisticated and in-depth reflection on the Covid-19 pandemic and its repercussions on our life. We praise Lucas for his courage to explore a topic which, for its pervasiveness, might appear banal and over understood, and about which not much else can be said. He instead makes us see, and feel, to what extent this new normal is not normal at all; it is the product of bio-political regulations.

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Best Miscellaneous Work: AY 2019/20 Semester 2

Nominated

*Winner

Alicia Chew, Hu Xinbei, Mikhail Faiz, Rachel Loh & Ong Yun Qi Vicki for “Intersectional Evaluations of Rental HDB Units in Eunos” (UTS2114: Technologies and Ageing in Singapore)

This was a meaningful project. It was a very well-researched study of how the void deck space in a HDB rental flat estate was used. Coherently written, it drew good links to the WHO framework and academic literature. The methodology in this project was well designed and justified. It provided strong evidence and anecdotal experiences of the elderly residents to make their case in this paper. The group also came up with good recommendations for how rental HDB void deck areas could be improved upon.

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Best Miscellaneous Work: AY 2020/21 Semester 1

Nominated

*Winner

Muhammad Shameer Bin Shiraj Abdullah, Samuel Ashwin Augustine, Rachel Ng Min Yee & Tan Su Yin for “Untitled” (UTS2100: Intelligence and Singapore Society)

This group came up with an innovative social experiment and presented a very detailed and convincing analysis of its findings in this research report. The conversational flows (Appendix F) was particularly interesting. There was also a good synthesis of findings. Relative to other nominations, this group work seemed to have expended a lot of effort in pulling this research off.

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Best Miscellaneous Work: AY 2019/20 Semester 2

Nominated

*Winner

Alicia Chew, Hu Xinbei, Mikhail Faiz, Rachel Loh & Ong Yun Qi Vicki for “Intersectional Evaluations of Rental HDB Units in Eunos” (UTS2114: Technologies and Ageing in Singapore)

This was a meaningful project. It was a very well-researched study of how the void deck space in a HDB rental flat estate was used. Coherently written, it drew good links to the WHO framework and academic literature. The methodology in this project was well designed and justified. It provided strong evidence and anecdotal experiences of the elderly residents to make their case in this paper. The group also came up with good recommendations for how rental HDB void deck areas could be improved upon.

Calendar Year 2019

Best Essay: AY 2019/20 Semester 1

Nominated

Honourable Mention

Tan Kian Long for “Nursing Home Infrastructure & Life Before Death in Singapore” (UTS2109 Senior Seminar - Asia Now! The Archaeology of the Future City)

This essay lingers long after reading. It combines both a rational and lyrical contemplation of ageing, appealing to the reader both rationally in its argument for changes to care centres, and also emotionally through an evocation of the transience of life. The essay achieves its end not only through evidence, but also through drawing on relevant images and poetic quotes dotted throughout the coherent argument. The student voice is particularly clear and strong, and the representation of information is highly original.

*Winner

Kingsley Kuan Jun Hao for “What is Truth? Divorcing Truth From Reality” (UTC1102G: Proof: What's Truth Got to Do With It?)

Kingsley's essay engages with difficult-to-understand abstract philosophical theories on the nature of reality and knowledge and weaves them into a convincing argument that we should keep truth and reality separate. It is a rare student work that keeps you thinking from start to finish and is all the more impressive as the work of a first year student.

This is undoubtedly a very intellectual and sophisticated attempt to illustrate how the abstract concepts of truth and reality can be made accessible through an unpacking of the everyday phrase “ he loves her”. Dialogic in approach, the writer draws on and reconciles very different philosophers (including Aristotle to build up a case.

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Best Essay: AY 2018/19 Semester 2

Nominated

Honourable Mention

Ow Yong Liu Qi for “Writing in Imperial China” (UTC2108 - Technology and the Fate of Knowledge)

This is an elegantly written and well-researched paper, which considers the role of writing as technology in a very specific period. What is striking is the writer’s comfortable application of theory to build a case with very concrete examples. Furthermore, although the scope is manageable and contained in the paper’s analysis of the Han dynasty specifically, the writer considers a far wider context, by referencing Ancient Greece and contemporary sites of writing in China. As such, this paper is about far more than writing and power in one particular era, but a philosophical contemplation of an ancient, and still contemporary, dynamic – beautifully written.

*Winner

Nguyen Xuan Bach for “Spatial and Temporal Differentiation in Public Reception of Art: A Reflection on Anti-Semitic Art” (UTC1102P Junior Seminar - Murals: Expressions from/on the Walls)

This paper is a thoughtful and sophisticated contemplation around the concept of stereotyping. What struck us was how Bach considered the subtle dynamic around imposed stereotyping (by the majority on the outsider), and the embracing of difference in order to survive as a minority in foreign countries (which results in the deliberate pursuit of a self-imposed “stereotyped” identity). Bach manages to juggle many ideas, namely anti-semitism, cultural context and multiple identities, while retaining focus and bringing them all together in his conclusion.

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Best Creative Work: AY 2019/20 Semester 1

Nominated

*Winner

Gurveer Singh Bhandal, Lo Ern Hui, Hannah, Ong Yun Qi, Vicki, Tan Bo Rong Jordan for “30 Years of the Great Union: A Celebration of the Real Global Power” (UTC2102 Climate Change)

Grounded on impressive research and a healthy dose of  imagination, this project – which takes the form of an exhibition – is an invitation to imagine a potential future caused by climate change. The attempt is to highlight the main causes at stake (such as GHG emission), multilevel consequences (on energy, food chain, migrations, ecosystems), and possible solutions (an active role played by Sino-Indian Union). The project is thus at the same time informative, thought provoking and inspiring. Through the display of future news articles, artefacts, graphics and maps, the exhibition enabled the viewer to not only imagine but viscerally experience and problematize this possible future.

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Best Creative Work: AY 2018/19 Semester 2

Nominated

*Winner

Angie Chong En Qi for “Grief: A Flipbook” (UTC2101 Time and Life)

This project uses a familiar, seemingly frivolous, object - a flipbook - to speak about the temporality of grief. The student exploits the form of the flipbook - stoppable, rewindable, hastened and slowed - to invite the viewer to experience an alternative to everyday linear time. Through this medium, the project reflects on the repetitive, cyclical experience of grief. The book is symmetrical, mirroring the way in which grief can be inescapable no matter the direction in which we look at it. The project is executed with care and empathy and is accompanied by thoughtful reflections that discuss the personal experience of grief in relation to themes and readings from the course.

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Best Miscellaneous Work: AY 2019/20 Semester 2

Nominated

*Winner

Tan Wee Ning for :”I’m Not a Monkey”: West Papua’s Forgotten War Remembered” (UTC2107 Negotiating in a Complex World)

Wee Ning aced this assignment in every way – the research, the writing, the execution. The case study she wrote on West Papua’s struggle for independence was rigorously researched based on the best available source materials. All relevant facts, such as the background positions of key parties, are seamlessly woven into a streamlined and engaging narrative which brilliantly prepares the reader for participation in the teaching demonstration. In the Teaching Guide, Wee Ning identifies several interesting learning outcomes, meticulously planning each phase of the demonstration so that it contributes to one of these outcomes. In addition, Wee Ning offers an exceptionally thoughtful range of teaching aids, again demonstrating a flair for bringing a complex set of facts to life.

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Best Miscellaneous Work: AY 2018/19 Semester 1

*Nominated & Winner

Isabel Chin for her Time Diary (UTC2101 Time and Life - Diary)

Isabel’s work is an academic essay deftly disguised as diary entries. The first thing to note is that Isabel is clearly a gifted writer. The composition is easy to follow and commands the reader’s attention. She writes with a certain personalised flair; and to borrow the words of her instructor, Isabel’s writing style is ‘aesthetically refined’. Two samples of her journal entries were submitted. In these entries, Isabel reflected on her own personal relationship with time while relating them the themes discussed in class. She showcased clear comprehension of the readings assigned in class by masterfully weaving the academic articles into the diary while documenting her personal life.

What made this particularly special – in addition to fulfilling the scholarly aspects of the assignment – was Isabel’s detailed and honest observations as she contemplated and imagined the various events and phases of her life (past and future) in these diary entries. 

 

The Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans) is a large evergreen tree in the family Gentianaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia. Its trunk is dark brown, with deeply fissured bark, looking somewhat like a bittergourd. It grows in an irregular shape from 10 to 25m high. Its leaves are light green and oval in shape. Its yellowish flowers have a distinct fragrance and the fruits of the tree are bitter tasting red berries, which are eaten by birds and fruit bats.