THE JULY 2015 RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
(Part One)

During the month of July, 2015, the Golden Key International Society, James Cook University Singapore Chapter, held its very first Research Symposium; a place where the research climate is celebrated, sparking ideas and generating discussions among both professional researchers and students alike.


Its theme – “The Changing Faces of the Tropics”, turned the lens of research onto the diverse and ever-changing climate within the Tropical regions, focusing on the unique and diverse challenges faced by the people living there; challenges seen nowhere else in the world.
But despite this, the majority of research accumulated over the ages both originates from, and cater more towards, people of the West, including many prominent research journals such as Nature and Science; examples of which dominates a significant portion of the research climate’s influence.

As such, we live in a period of time where the Tropics offer us much to learn from. Culture, Languages, the way of life of the native people; all of these are but a small portion of the Tropical aspects ripe for research and intellectual discussions.

But where do we start?
The Symposium Speakers

Our first guest speaker, Dr. K. Thiruman, a prominent researcher specializing in Southeast Asian Studies, provided us insight with his topic: ‘Articulating a Research Framework for the Tropics’. Defining the Tropics as a belt-like region encompassing the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn, Dr. Thiruman highlighted two structures whereby we can conduct research in the Tropics: Research centered around the lives of the native people, and research comparing two similar societies such as Singapore and the city of Shanghai- both alike, but with one within the Sub-tropical region.