Wesley Lim

Wesley Lim is a Lecturer in German Studies at the School of Literature, Languages & Linguistics at the Australian National University (ANU). He holds a PhD in German Literature and Culture from Vanderbilt University (2012), alongside MA (Vanderbilt) and BBA (Emory University) degrees. His research bridges Germanic literature, dance studies, and film analysis, with a focus on metropolitan aesthetics, figure skating as cultural performance, and queer/Asian masculinities in sport.

Research Projects:

• Dancing with the Modernist City: Metropolitan Dance Texts around 1900 (book, 2024)
• Crafting Artistic Agency: Performing Politics in East German Figure Skating (forthcoming)
• Co-authored project on Asian Masculinity in Figure Skating with Michelle Ho (NUS)

Teaching & Grants:

• Recipient of ANU-RSHA External Visitor Funding (2023-2024) and National Library of Australia Fellowship (2023)
• Past fellowships include DAAD Faculty Summer Seminar (2017) and Berlin Program for Advanced German Studies (2009-2010)

Research Interests:

• Urban Modernism in German literature (1896-1914)
• Figure skating as geopolitical and gendered performance
• Screendance and intermedial aesthetics
• Queer and postcolonial dance studies

Recent work examines how dance intersects with urban space, Cold War politics, and transnational media representation.

Awards & Recognition:

• National Library of Australia Fellowship (2023)
• Berlin Program Research Fellowship (2009-2010)
• Fulbright-DAAD Summer Academy Participant (2017)

Advising & Collaboration:

• Supervised student projects on Fassbinder, sci-fi gender representation, and horror film ethnography
• Co-leads Asian masculinity research with Michelle Ho (NUS)