PETER THOMAS VAIL
Associate Professor
University Scholars Programme,
National University of Singapore
uspptv@nus.edu.sg
(65) 6516 1332
Brief Introduction
A/P Peter Vail is an Associate Professor in the University Scholars Programme (USP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His academic training is chiefly in Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology and Sociolinguistics. A/P Vail received a BA in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley; an MS in Linguistics at Georgetown University; and an MA, PhD in Anthropology at Cornell University.
His geographical focus is on mainland Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. He maintains a keen interest in anthropological approaches to film, and is an avid woodworker.
Learn more about A/P Vail in this interview under USP Highlights.
Teaching Modules @ USP
A/P Vail teaches in the domains of Writing and Critical Thinking, and Humanities and Social Sciences. He offers the following modules:
Research Interests
- Sociolinguistics, including everyday language use, narrative, language ideology, and the politics of language
- Linguistic Anthropology, including the connection between culture, language and cognition, and anthropological approaches to literacy
- Cultural Anthropology, including nationalism, indigeneity, and the anthropology of sport
- Development Anthropology, including participatory action research, state-minority relations, and social marginalization
Titles of Independent Study Modules (ISMs) Previously Supervised (for USP students)
- Food Narratives And Nationalism
- Investigating Spatial Content Gesture Patterns in Mandarin and English Bilinguals