Faculty Profile

LIM, Elvin

Full-time Faculty

Dean, College of Integrative Studies; Professor of Political Science; Director, Wee Kim Wee Centre; Lead, PSR and SMU's Living and Learning Strategy

College of Integrative Studies CIS

Elvin Lim joined SMU in 2017. He is the Dean, College of Integrative Studies, Professor of Political Science, and the Director of the Wee Kim Wee Centre. He specializes in presidential and executive politics, political communication, political development, political thought, and constitutional law. He is the author of The Lovers Quarrel: The Two Foundings and American Political Development (Oxford University Press, 2014) and The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press, 2008) and research articles that reflect his interdisciplinary research interests. He is a winner of the Founders Award of the Presidency and Executive Politics section of the American Political Science Association and has won numerous teaching awards. He is a member of the Social Science Research Council Expert Panel, and is a Director of the Board of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Prior to joining SMU, he held positions at the National University of Singapore, where he served as Head of the Department of Political Science, and at Wesleyan University in the United States. He holds a BA (First Class) and DPhil from Oxford.