TFAS Asia
*2024 PROGRAM NOTICE*
Please note: TFAS Asia is postponed for 2024, and may be held July 2025. We will update this page as appropriate as soon as more information is available.
TFAS Asia is a three-week long academic program where young leaders from over fifteen countries across Asia and the United States gather to explore the fundamental principles of a free society and examine how economic and political freedom are intertwined. In addition to formal classes and Socratic seminars held at the National University of Singapore (NUS), one of the region’s top ranked universities, TFAS Asia includes guest lectures, cultural events, and tours of local institutions that will highlight the unique culture and history of Singapore. By participating in TFAS Asia, you will not only learn about the culture of Singapore but that of your fellow participants while establishing a network of peer leaders.
ACADEMICS
The goal of TFAS Asia is to further an understanding of American government, political economy, and the liberal tradition. Through an interdisciplinary course on political economy and political philosophy, students will examine how economic and political freedom are intertwined. The political philosophy portion will place particular emphasis on the principles and ideas that animated the American Founding while the economics portion will serve to demonstrate how market economies contribute to greater prosperity and human freedom.
Students are expected to complete daily readings and any other projects assigned, and will receive 3 undergraduate credit hours from George Mason University upon successful completion of the program.
FACULTY
Samuel Gregg, Acton Institute
PROFESSOR – POLITICAL ECONOMY
Samuel Gregg is the Research Director at the Acton Institute, a Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Gregg is also serving as President of the Philadelphia Society for 2019-2020. He directs the Acton Institute’s research and international outreach, including budgeting, personnel, and programming development and implementation.
He has written on questions of political economy, natural law theory, and Western culture. He is the author of thirteen books including On Ordered Liberty (2003), the prize-winning The Commercial Society (2007), Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy (2010), Becoming Europe (2013), and, most recently, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization (2019). He has published forty-eight academic journal articles and over 300 articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal Europe, First Things, Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Times, American Banker, National Review, Public Discourse, Modern Age, The Spectator, Australian Financial Review, and Jerusalem Post. He has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, and in the Holy See’s L’Osservatore Romano. He has a D.Phil. in moral philosophy and political economy from Oxford University.
Vincent P. Muñoz, University of Notre Dame
PROFESSOR – POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science and concurrent Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is the founding director of Notre Dame’s undergraduate minor in constitutional studies and also directs Notre Dame’s Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life.
Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. His first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010. His First Amendment church-state case reader, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents was first published in 2013 and is being used at Notre Dame and other leading universities. In 2019, he joined the editorial team of American Constitutional Law, the leading constitutional law casebooks designed for undergraduate instruction. Articles from that project have appeared in American Political Science Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, American Political Thought and the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Constitutional Law.
An award-winning teacher and a popular lecturer, Dr. Muñoz has spoken at over seventy colleges and universities in the past several years. He received his Bachelor of Arts at Claremont McKenna College, his Master of Arts at Boston College and his doctorate at Claremont Graduate School.
As a TFAS Asia participant, you will have the opportunity to learn about the culture and heritage of Singapore, a bustling city-state and global destination, as well as the cultures of your fellow participants.
Singapore City Tour
During their first weekend, students will explore the history and diverse culture of Singapore through an all-day tour of the back streets and historic landmarks of the city. Potential destinations could include Little India, Chinatown, Marina Bay, the Merlion, colonial landmarks like City Hall, and cultural sites like Thian Hock Keng Temple.
Cultural Presentations
This event allows students to celebrate their own cultures while learning about those of others. Groups from each country perform a dance, deliver a presentation or poem, sing a song, or share something iconic about their culture with their fellow participants.
Graduation Dinner
The final event of TFAS Asia is a celebratory graduation ceremony and dinner. TFAS faculty and staff, along with select participants, offer closing remarks, and students are able to celebrate their achievement of completing a rigorous program and graduating into a vast and accomplished network of TFAS alumni.
Accommodation + Meals
Students participating in the program will reside in dormitories overseen by the National University of Singapore (NUS). Classes will be held on Bukit Timah Campus in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP).
Students will also receive a meal stipend at the start of TFAS Asia that will cover some meals on campus throughout the program.
Transportation
Singapore boasts one of the best public transportation systems in the world, and the LKYSPP is situated minutes away from a local MRT station. Students can utilize Singapore’s MRT system and buses for easy access to various parts of the city.
Neighborhood
Singapore is a thriving global financial hub, with modern and gleaming shopping centers, lush green surroundings, and world-renowned cuisine and food stalls. The Bukit Timah Campus is adjacent to Singapore’s beautiful botanical gardens and is just minutes away from the activity of the famous Orchard Road district.
Please note this schedule gives an idea of the program’s general structure and is subject to change. Participants will receive the final schedule prior to the start of TFAS Asia.
3:00PM – 6:00PM | Registration |
6:00PM – 8:00PM | Welcome Dinner |
9:00AM – 5:00PM | Singapore City Tour |
Free Day |
9:30AM – 11:00AM | Tour of NUS |
11:15AM – 12:45PM | Political Phil. Lecture 1 |
1:00PM – 2:00PM | Lunch |
2:15PM – 3:15PM | Guest Lecture |
9:30AM – 11:00AM | Political Phil. Lecture 2 |
11:15AM – 12:45PM | Political Phil. Lecture 3 |
1:00PM – 2:00PM | Lunch |
3:00PM – 5:00PM | Site Visit |
9:30AM – 11:00AM | Political Phil. Lecture 4 |
11:15AM – 12:45PM | Political Phil. Lecture 5 |
1:00PM – 2:00PM | Lunch |
9:30AM – 11:00AM | Political Phil. Lecture 6 |
11:15AM – 12:45PM | Political Phil. Lecture 7 |
1:00PM – 2:00PM | Lunch |
5:30PM – 8:30PM | Cultural Presentations Dinner |
9:30AM – 11:00AM | Political Phil. Lecture 8 |
11:15AM – 12:45PM | Political Phil. Lecture 9 |
1:00PM – 2:00PM | Lunch |
2:15PM – 3:15PM | Socratic Seminar |