Let us warmly welcome Assoc Prof Lim Sun Sun who joins the FASS Dean’s Office as Assistant Dean of Research this year!
We caught up with her to find out more about her.
Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I graduated from NUS with an Honours degree in political science after some of the best years of my life as a student in FASS. I enjoyed what I was learning so much – history, philosophy, political science – each subject was compelling, intriguing and thought-provoking in its own way and I loved them all! it was a wonderful introduction to the social sciences. So after receiving my PhD in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics, I jumped at the chance to teach in FASS so as to recreate my experience for my students.
I have two young children who keep me busy with their incessant and often mind-blowing questions and observations. I enjoy reading, travelling and experimenting in the kitchen, although not always with good results.
What is your area of research?
I study the social implications of technology domestication by young people and families, charting the ethnographies of their Internet and mobile phone use. My recent research has focused attention on understudied and marginalised populations including young children, youths-at-risk and female migrant workers. I also conduct research on new media literacies, with a special focus on literacy challenges in parental mediation and young people’s Internet skills
Why Communications and New Media?
Our increasingly mediatised society has been greatly enriched by the advent of new communication technologies. These technologies have a potentially transformative effect on the ways in which we live and work, and how we engage with and relate to one another. Communications and New Media studies seeks to understand the impact of such technologies and human responses to such impacts.
Can you share your thoughts about joining Dean’s Office as Assistant Dean for Research?
After teaching in NUS for 10 years and having been involved in departmental service as Deputy Head of CNM, I appreciate this opportunity to serve at the faculty level. I hope to make a difference by helping to enhance the faculty’s research landscape through initiatives that can connect researchers with one another, as well as with their multiple stakeholders. There is also tremendous resonance between my work as Assistant Dean for Research and my involvement in the international academic community. I sit on the Executive Committee of the Association of Internet Researchers and I serve on the editorial boards of Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Communication, Culture & Critique, Journal of Children and Media, Mobile Media & Communication and the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. I believe that my new role in the faculty will be challenging but rewarding and look forward to this learning opportunity.