Prof. Kenneth Paul Tan
Contact Information
Email: kennethptan@hkbu.edu.hk
Telephone: +852 34118262
Website: https://www.kennethpaultan.net/
Professor, Department of Journalism
- SMART SOCIETY
OVERVIEW
Kenneth Paul TAN is a tenured Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, which hired him under its Talent100 initiative in February 2021. He teaches and conducts interdisciplinary research within and across the Academy of Film, the Department of Journalism, and the Department of Government and International Studies. He is a member of the Global Communication and Power Research Cluster.
He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School). He was Vice Dean of the LKY School during the most rapid and critical years of its growth and served in its senior leadership team for almost a decade. Prior to that, he taught concurrently at the NUS Political Science Department (where he was Assistant Head) and the University Scholars Programme, the university's pioneering and cutting-edge liberal arts programme.
He has received numerous teaching awards over the years, including NUS's most prestigious Outstanding Educator Award. He was elected Chair of the university's Teaching Academy.
His books include 新加坡模式:城邦國家建構簡史 (季風帶文化,2020), Singapore: Identity, Brand, Power (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Governing Global-City Singapore: Legacies and Futures After Lee Kuan Yew (Routledge, 2017), Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension (Brill, 2008), and Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics (NUS Press, 2007).
He is currently working on three new books: (1) Movies to Save Our World: Imagining Poverty, Inequality, and Revolution in the 21st Century (under contract with Penguin); (2) Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Vice Regulation and Public Morality in Singapore; and (3) Neoliberal Decadence: Global-City Singapore.
He has also published numerous articles in leading international journals, reflecting an innovative and interdisciplinary research agenda that bridges Political Science, Public Management, Policy Studies, Sociology, Urban Studies, Cultural Studies, and Film and Media Studies.
He has held visiting fellowships and professorships at the Australian National University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Georgetown University (on a Fulbright Fellowship), Harvard University, Sciences Po, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Hong Kong. In 1995, he received the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Postgraduate Scholarship to do a PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge, which he completed in 2000. In 1994, he obtained a First Class Honours degree in the Joint School of Economics and Politics at the University of Bristol on a Public Service Commission Overseas Merit (Open) Scholarship.
He is a member of the National Arts Council (Singapore)’s Arts Advisory Panel and the National Museum of Singapore’s Advisory Board. He chairs the Board of Directors of theatre company The Necessary Stage (Singapore). He was the founding chair of the Asian Film Archive’s Board of Directors.
He is a trained musician and an enthusiastic marathon runner. He is married to Clara Lim-Tan, Director (Arts Education) at the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Relating to project: “Neoliberal Decadence: Global-City Singapore”
Prof Kenneth Paul Tan spoke about the decadence of Singapore’s People's Action Party government on 11 September 2020 at a live webinar titled "Singapore’s GE2020: The real watershed election?" organized by Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia.
Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed on why and how Singapore succeeded, and why other countries look to Singapore for a model of development, governance, and policymaking.
Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed about migrant workers in Singapore, for SocialService.Sg Podcast on 1 May 2020.
More YouTube links can be found here.
Prof Kenneth Paul Tan gave a public lecture on Singapore's pragmatism at the National Museum of Singapore on 17 August 2019.
Prof Kenneth Paul Tan gave a public lecture to launch the paperback edition of his Governing Global-City Singapore: Legacies and Futures After Lee Kuan Yew (Routledge, 2018).
MEDIA COVERAGE
1. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan gave a long interview for a documentary programme on C1 Television Mongolia on Singapore’s education system and national development. Learn more | Watch YouTube video
2. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed on Singapore's education system, in Frédéric Castaignède's documentary in September 2018. The documentary on the future of schools was titled Demain, L'Ecole. Learn More | Watch YouTube video
3. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed by Member of Parliament Janil Puthucheary on religious harmony in Singapore, for Channel News Asia documentary Regardless of Religion on 14 August 2017. Full documentary available here. Learn More | Watch YouTube video
4. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed on race relations in Singapore by Member of Parliament Janil Puthucheary for Channel News Asia documentary Regardless of Race on 16 August 2016. Full documentary available here. Learn More | Watch YouTube video
5. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed about Lee Kuan Yew's legacy, on location outside the Istana for "Newsday", BBC World News, on 24 March 2015. Learn More | Watch YouTube video
6. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan discussed the legacy of Lee Kuan Yew with Bloomberg TV’s Haslinda Amin on “Asia Edge”, 23 March 2015. Learn More
7. Prof Kenneth Paul Tan was interviewed by Tom Brook on Singapore cinema for a two-part BBC Talking Movies special on Singapore. Learn More
BOOKS
(From left)
- Kenneth Paul Tan (2020) (trans. Kwong Kin Ming) Singapore Model: A Brief History of City-State Construction (Monsoon Belt Culture)
- Kenneth Paul Tan (2018) Singapore: Identity, Brand, Power (Cambridge University Press)
- Kenneth Paul Tan (2017) Governing Global-City Singapore: Legacies and Futures After Lee Kuan Yew (Routledge)
- Kishore Mahbubani, Stavros N Yiannouka, Scott A Fritzen, Astrid S Tuminez, & Kenneth Paul Tan (2012) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy: Building a Global Policy School in Asia (World Scientific)
- Kenneth Paul Tan (2008) Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension (Brill)
- Kenneth Paul Tan (Editor) (2007) Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, Politics (NUS Press)
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