Kenneth Paul Tan is a tenured Professor of Politics, Film, and Cultural Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, recruited under its prestigious Talent100 initiative in 2021. He teaches and conducts interdisciplinary research across the School of Communication, Department of Journalism, Academy of Film, and Department of Government and International Studies. 

​Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where he served nearly a decade on the senior leadership team. As Vice Dean during its most critical phase of growth, he played a leading role in shaping the School’s academic direction. He also taught in the NUS Political Science Department (as Assistant Head) and in the University Scholars Programme, the university’s flagship liberal arts initiative.

​An award-winning educator and mentor, Tan received numerous accolades, including NUS’s highest teaching honour—the Outstanding Educator Award—and was elected Chair of its Teaching Academy. In 2024, he received the HKBU Performance Award for Research Supervision. Since 2021, he has consistently been ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University, recognised especially for his contributions to Cultural Studies, International Studies, and the Social Sciences.​

Tan’s research explores the cultural politics of power, identity, and memory in postcolonial and globalising Asia, through an interdisciplinary lens. He is the author or editor of eight books and numerous journal articles, and is currently completing a new book on cinema, haunting, and postcolonial afterlives in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.​

He is also an active public intellectual, regularly invited to deliver lectures and speak at forums, and often interviewed or cited in international media. He has held visiting or honorary appointments at Harvard, Georgetown (Fulbright), Sciences Po, INSEAD, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Australian National University, Griffith University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Hong Kong. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (Lee Kuan Yew Scholar) and a First Class Honours degree from the University of Bristol (Singapore Overseas Merit Scholar).​

Beyond academia, Tan was the founding Chair of the Asian Film Archive, chaired the Board of Directors of The Necessary Stage (a leading Singapore theatre company), and served on the Advisory Boards of the National Museum of Singapore and the National Arts Council. He is a trained musician and a marathon runner.