PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
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 at the Academy of Film, the Department of Journalism, and the Department of Government and International Studies. He is a member of the university's Smart Society Lab. Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He was the school's Vice Dean during the most rapid and critical years of its growth and served in its senior leadership team for almost a decade. He has received numerous teaching awards over the years, including NUS's most prestigious Outstanding Educator Award. His books include 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 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 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). And he was the founding chair of the Asian Film Archive's Board of Directors.
Can movies build registers for bringing about social change amidst the devastating effects of neoliberal globalization and the global rise of authoritarian populism? Professor Kenneth Paul Tan, one of the most significant public intellectuals of Singapore, grapples with this vital question of our times, exploring the ways in which cinema can build our capacities for collective deliberation to build a just and sustainable world. The striking geographic expanse of the book and the brilliant analysis of the questions of poverty, inequality, massive ecological destruction, authoritarian populism and revolution offer conceptual fodder for exploring the ways in which the craft of moviemaking can connect audiences with their moral feelings and intuitions. --Mohan Dutta, Dean's Chair Professor of Communication at Massey University, and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) In Movies To Save Our World, Kenneth Paul Tan explores how cinematic texts present poverty, inequality and environmental destruction in today's global world. Tan engages the films of Michael Moore and other major documentary filmmakers, as well as significant narrative fictional texts, to explore how cinema can help us see the problems, challenges, and inequities of the world, as well as possible solutions. The result is a probing and provocative text that enables us to envision the political possibilities of contemporary cinema. --Douglas Kellner, Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA
