Sovan PATRA
Dr. Sovan Patra is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Integrative Studies and the School of Social Sciences at SMU. Here, he teaches Big Questions, Critical Thinking in the Real World and Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Methods.
Sovan studied Economics (Bachelor of Social Sciences-Honours) and Philosophy (Ph.D) at the National University of Singapore. Prior to joining SMU, he taught undergraduate courses on Global Social Thought and Social Norms at NUS College, on Populism and Rationality at Yale-NUS College and in Game Theory for the University of London Programmes. At the graduate level, he has taught at the Lee Kong Chian School for Business and at the Yong Pung How School of Law, both at SMU.
Sovan is curious about social behaviour and phenomena in general and, accordingly, his research is topically diverse and interdisciplinary in scope. His current investigation focusses on the proximate and ultimate links between religion and prosociality. At the time of writing, he lived with two cats and a dog (the number and composition of animals keeps changing in response to mortality and chance).
Qualifications
- PhD in Philosophy, National University of Singapore, 2010
- MA in Philosophy, National University of Singapore, 2004
- B.Soc.Sci. (Economics) Honours, National University of Singapore, 2001
Research Interests
- Decision Theory
- Game Theory
- Philosophy of Probability
Course(s) Taught in SMU
- Big Questions
- Critical Thinking in the Real World
- Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Methods
