Prince William will participate in a United for Wildlife summit hosted by Singapore’s National Parks Board and Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Marine Affairs during his four-day stay in Singapore. It brings together representatives of law enforcement agencies, conservation groups and corporations working against illegal wildlife trade that accounts for an estimated $20 billion annual loss of biodiversity.
Mr. Kerry will also meet Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon, and try his luck at dragon boating – an increasingly popular sport in Southeast Asia – before witnessing firsthand how local citizens are leading efforts to protect our environment.
History gets its due at this year’s National University of Singapore (NUS) history prize, with a shortlist that encompasses academic tomes as well as fiction with historical themes. Kamaladevi Aravindan won this category with her novel Sembawang (2020, available here) that explores an estate’s past through generations of residents.
The winner of this prize will receive S$50,000; with each of the other three finalists receiving S$10k each. A shortlist composed by historians, academics and journalists comprised the shortlist. According to Professor Kishore Mahbubani – senior advisor of this prize – there are plans to extend eligibility criteria by including films and comics, as “history can sometimes be told more effectively through alternative formats”.
Publishing Perspectives extends our congratulations and best wishes to all nominees and winners in this year’s NUS awards, including those on the finalist list available via their website here.
The 2024 prize will honour publications that have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of Singaporean history. Eligible works must have been written or translated and published between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2024 in English language; book-length works should cover any time period, theme or field within Singaporean history while including substantial aspects as part of a wider narrative storyline.
NUS is the first country in Asia to create an annual prize dedicated to its own history, following global trends of awarding literary, science and cultural works with prizes.
NUS established its prize in 2014, just prior to Singapore’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. The prize aimed to promote new research and increase people’s understanding of Singaporean history through collaboration between NUS and government and funding from National Heritage Board grants. Professor John Miksic won its inaugural prize with his book Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea: 1300-1800 which provided detailed archaeological evidence that dates back 700 years on this island nation. A panel of judges led by Wang Gungwu (chairman of NUS East Asian Institute) picked Miksic from among 29 submissions by local authors from local as well as international authors from local authors around 29 submissions submitted from around 29 authors both local as well as internationally.
