Syed Farid Alatas

Syed Farid Alatas

  • Adjunct Professor of Practice (7154)
  • Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Biography

Syed Farid Alatas is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. He also headed the Department of Malay Studies at NUS from 2007 till 2013. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to joining NUS. His books and articles include Ibn Khaldun (Oxford University Press, 2013); Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (Routledge, 2014), and (with Vineeta Sinha) Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (Palgrave, 2017). He has a forthcoming book on decolonial thought with Duke University Press. His areas of interest are the social theory, religion and reform, intra- and inter-religious dialogue, and the study of Eurocentrism. 

Academic & Professional Qualifications

  • PhD Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1991)
  • Master's Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1988)
  • Degree Economics, University of Oregon, Eugene (1984)
  • Certificate in Comparative International Development, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (1991)

Research Interests

  • 1. Social Theory
  • 2. Decolonization
  • 3. Imperialism
  • 4. Development Studies

Teaching Areas

  • 1. Social Theory
  • 2. Development Studies
  • 3. Ibn Khaldun

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Sociology
  • The Southeast Asian Region: Landscape and Society
  • Orientalism
  • Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
  • Political Economy of Southeast Asia
  • Social Thought and Social Theory
  • Development and Social Change
  • Religion in Society and Culture
  • Theory and Practice in Malay Studies

Notable Publications

2022 “Raffles and the Expose of Colonial Myth-Making”, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 43, 1:130-137.

2022 “Political Economies of Knowledge Production: On and Around Academic Dependency”, Journal of Historical Sociology 35, 1: 14-23.

2022 “Reading Ibn Khaldun in the Formative Period of Sociology”, Journal of Historical Sociology 35, 3: 302-311.

2022 “Decolonising Knowledge: Meaning and Problems”, Social Affairs 2, 2: 1-16.

2023 (with Takeo Suzuki & Zenta Nishio), “Voyages to Autonomous Knowledge” Intersection 1(2023): 25-43. (interview with Syed Farid Alatas)

2023 (with Leon Moosavi), “The Intellectual Biography of Syed Farid Alatas: Hegemonic Orientations, Epistemic Decolonisation and the School of Autonomous Knowledge”, Current Sociology (interview with Syed Farid Alatas)

2024 “The Coloniality of Knowledge and the Autonomous Knowledge Tradition” Sociology Compass, 18, 8. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13256

2024 (with Chen Hon-Fai & Sujata Patel), “Introduction: Intellectual Decolonisation: Contexts, Critiques and Alternatives”, Sociology Compass 18, 8. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13256

2025 “The Decolonization of Research: Structures of Inquiry and Theory”, International Journal of Social Research Methodology 28, 6, pp. 759-776

2025 “Syed Farid Alatas, “Thinking against Coloniality from the Malay World: A Personal Reflection,” The Thinker 104, no. 3, pp. 15-23. Special issue, Decoloniality/Decolonization in the Twentieth First Century: What, Why, Where, Whom, What For? Edited by Walter D. Mignolo and Sabelo J. Ndlovu Gastheni. 

Professional Associations

International Sociological Association

International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations