University Awards

Outstanding Educator Award

The university classroom constitutes an indispensable venue for rendering academic knowledge accessible to students. But to make that same knowledge meaningful, we must encourage them to go beyond the classroom. Experiential learning constitutes an essential bridge to the wider world, where students learn to generate sound critical insights, nuanced perspectives, and a genuine understanding of complex issues by working in real-world contexts. ” Associate Professor Peter Thomas Vail
NUS College
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Current Teaching Portfolio

  • Food production and society in Southeast Asia
  • Language, cognition and culture
  • Understanding the social world
  • NUS College Impact Experience Project Chiang Mai
  • NUS College Global Experience Bali — Lombok

Teaching Achievements

  • Led the design, development and coordination of the compulsory Impact Experience (IEx) capstone course. One of NUS College’s flagship programmes, IEx allows students to undertake community service and development projects in countries across Southeast Asia and Singapore.
  • Managed multiple student service projects in Thailand, including sustainable elephant tourism, community water remediation, coffee and bamboo as sustainable crop substitution, organic agriculture product development, orthopaedic equipment for elephant care, and community-based wild gibbon conservation.
  • Developed NUS College curricula and implemented beyond-the-classroom courses that focus on fieldwork and experiential learning about real-world issues.
  • Crafted and piloted the NUS College Global Experience course, GEx Bali — Lombok, which focuses on marine conservation and participatory development strategies. 

Publication Credits

  • Dara’ang Futures (Documentary film on statelessness and marginality). Produced by Peter Vail, Theeraphan Satrakhom and Harry Virtanen. Singapore: NUS, 2017.
  • Pa Khao (Documentary film on statelessness and land tenure struggles). Produced by Peter Vail, Theeraphan Satrakhom and Majid Bagheri. Singapore: NUS, 2016.
  • “Muay Thai: Inventing Tradition for a National Symbol.” Sojourn 29, no. 3 (2014): 509–53.
  • “The Politics of Scripts: Language Rights, Heritage, and the Choice of Orthography for Khmer Vernaculars in Thailand” (with Panuwat Pantakod). In Rights to Culture: Heritage, Language and Community in Thailand, edited by Coeli Barry. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books / University of Washington Press, 2013.

International Standing

  • Affiliation at the Regional Center for Social Sciences and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
  • Affiliation at the Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand
  • Reviewer for journals including Asian Ethnicity and Sojourn
  • External examiner for postdoctoral degree candidates at Chiang Mai University and Macquarie University 

Awards and Accolades

  • NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award (2023, 2012, 2011, 2010)
  • University Scholars Programme Teaching Honour Roll (2021–23, 2014–16)
  • University Scholars Programme Teaching Excellence Award (2022, 2019, 2018, 2013, 2012, 2011)
  • NUS Annual Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll (2014–19) 

Education

  • PhD, MA (Cornell University)
  • MS (Georgetown University)
  • BA (University of California, Berkeley)
 Honour Roll Recipients