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Exciting Life Updates

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I know I haven’t been updating this blog because I’m too lazy. Years 2 and 3 have been an exciting flurry of business (both work and busy-ness). I constantly spew bite-sized thoughts that stream into my mind on Instagram Stories anyway, and I am remarkably easily bored and excitable, so longer, more considered pieces on Blogger aren’t sustainable. I digress. Many exciting life updates! I’m now officially done with my undergraduate PPE programme at King’s College London. I loved every bit of it: the depth, rigour and intellectual intensity of the course, the international student community, the bustling city of London and all the travel opportunities around Europe. Words can’t do justice to the profundity of the experience. In typical Quincean fashion, I milked everything I could out of the three years: went to Cumberland Lodge (for free) as a photographer with the Philosophy Department in Years 1 and 3, clinched the Principal’s Global Leadership Award (PGLA) in my second year (spending
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As Year 1 Semester 2 Ends

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It’s 9 pm. Earlier this evening, I tapau-ed a macchiato in my trusty SPF hot water flask (it was an ORD gift!) from Pret St Martin’s Lane — my favourite late-night (i.e., open till 11 pm every day) Pret in London. I’ve now settled into a cosy chair in the Round Reading Room of the Maughan Library. Love the wooden tables here; compared to the plastic and metal ones elsewhere in the library, they feel storied and amiable.

What a Sunday on which to write this short piece! I just submitted my 4SSPP103 Comparing Political Systems essay (40% of overall grade) on Thursday afternoon. The essay question was on the relationship between globalisation and voting behaviour. After analysing longitudinal data from 18 Asia-Pacific countries, I concluded that globalisation causes voters to swing rightwards because vulnerability is the flip side of connectivity. I spent Friday and Saturday tying up as many stressful loose ends (STRAND magazine and Photovoice SG) as I could. 😩 Thankfully, today has been restful. Still, I’m gearing up for my Economics final exam on Thursday.

Year 1 went quite well. I travelled to Málaga, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Oxford, Venice, Milan and Paris. I was unsuccessful in two competitions — the 8th Annual Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics and the KCL Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prize — but c’est la vie.

I’m really excited about my Year 2 module choices. As planned since JC, I will be focusing on value theory. (Yes, I will be ditching Economics and taking the BA, not BSc, route.) This is because interpersonal, international and intercultural misjudgment and conflict have played out on the axiological arena since time immemorial. King’s College London allows us to take up to two modules from other departments per year, so why not further liberal-artsify my already quite liberal-artsy Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) degree? I hope I get all my choices! ∎

Module Code

Name

Convenor

Type

Period

Discipline

5SSPP219

Key Concepts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Dr Roberto Fumagalli & Dr Marta Wojciechowska

Compulsory

Semester 1

PPE Interdisciplinary Module

5SSPP202

History of Western Political Thought

Dr Paul Sagar

Optional

Semester 1

Political Science

5AANA005

Ethics IIA

Prof David Owens

Optional

Semester 1

Philosophy

5AANA014

Philosophical Logic

Dr Julien Dutant

Optional

Semester 1

Philosophy

5AANB016

Intermediate Logic

Dr Carlo Nicolai

Optional

Semester 2

Philosophy

5SSPP227

Game Theory and Strategic Decision-Making

Prof Paul Lewis

Optional

Semester 2

Economics

5SSPP238

Contemporary Issues in Political Theory

Dr Paul Sagar

Optional

Semester 2

Political Science

5SSG2056

Urban and Cultural Geography

Dr Johan Andersson

Optional

Semester 2

Geography (External)

5AANB006

Ethics IIB

to be confirmed

Optional

Semester 2

Philosophy (Backup)

5AANA009

Epistemology II

Dr Julien Dutant

Optional

Semester 2

Philosophy (Backup)

5AANB053

Philosophy of Physics 1

Dr Alexander Franklin

Optional

Semester 1

Philosophy (Backup)

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