Sim Wai Chew

Assoc Prof Sim Wai Chew serves as Associate Professor and Head of the English Programme at Nanyang Technological University's School of Humanities, College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences. Her academic leadership spans teaching, research, and administration within Singapore's premier literary studies department.

Her educational credentials include:

• BA (Honours) First Class from University of East Anglia (UK), 1989
• Postgraduate Diploma in Education from Nanyang Technological University, 1992
• PhD from University of Warwick (UK), 2002

Professor Sim's research centers on Southeast Asian writing as an alternative theoretical locus to metropolitan discourse, with primary expertise in Postcolonial Literature, Sinophone Studies, and Comparative Literature. Her investigations span Singapore/Southeast Asian Literature, British-Asian Literature, and Eco-criticism, examining themes of super-diversity, literary multilingualism, and cultural identity formation across transnational contexts. This interdisciplinary approach bridges literary analysis with sociological frameworks and postcolonial theory.

Her publication trajectory from 2005-2020 reveals evolving scholarly priorities: early work focused on Nietzschean existentialism in Singaporean/Malaysian texts, while recent research explores multilingualism, global assemblages, and super-diversity through contemporary Southeast Asian writing. This progression demonstrates increasing engagement with transnational frameworks and interdisciplinary methodologies.

She actively mentors graduate researchers including PhD candidates Show Ying Xin (Cold War Peripheries in Malaysian Literature), Long Chao (Hong Kong Sinophonicities), and Zhang Lei, Luka (Life Writing and Asian Historical Fiction), alongside Masters students Eunice Lim Ying Ci (literary translation), Lim Soon Vin (gender politics), and Dhanya Lingesh (Postcolonial/Green Thought convergence). Her supervisory portfolio reflects the program's commitment to diverse theoretical approaches within Asian literary studies.