Donor-Sponsored Lectures

The Wee Kim Wee Centre at SMU supports a range of donor-sponsored lectures that reflect the Centre’s commitment to fostering cultural understanding, social responsibility, and critical engagement with today’s most pressing issues. These lectures create a valuable platform for students, faculty, and the wider community to learn from leading thinkers and changemakers, encouraging thoughtful dialogue on peace, purpose, and the complexities of modern life. Since 2019, the lectures are incorporated in the COR3001: Big Questions course of SMU’s Core Curriculum, centred on the themes of “Happiness and Suffering” and “Wealth and Poverty”, designed to encourage public engagement and discourse on relevant issues in the contemporary world.

Shaw Foundation Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

The Shaw Foundation Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series was established in December 2001 in recognition of the support from the Shaw Foundation. The series was established to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of the issues at all levels that are relevant in a global fast changing environment. The aim is for the community to have a deeper understanding of the issues and be inspired to learn from the people whose work and lives have a profound impact in the world around us.

Lien Fung’s Colloquium 廉凤讲座

The Lien Fung’s Colloquium was established by the late philanthropist Mrs. Ho Lien Fung in 2003. Also known as 廉凤讲座, the lecture series aims to be a cultural bridge between public and academic life through the intersectional dialogue of everyday lived experience and intellectual discourse. It was Mrs. Ho’s belief that the forum would inspire and cater to SMU students' and the wider community's quest for broader, interdisciplinary knowledge.

Ngee Ann Kongsi Annual Lecture Series

Inaugurated by the Ngee Ann Kongsi in October 2007, the Ngee Ann Kongsi Annual Lecture Series has been a platform for industry leaders and eminent scholars of international renown to share their knowledge and perspectives with an audience as diverse as pre-university students, undergraduates and faculty of SMU, executives and civic leaders, entrepreneurs, government officials and other interested members of the community.

SMU-Ikeda Peace and Harmony Lecture and SMU-Soka International Peace Symposium

The SMU-Ikeda Peace and Harmony Lecture and the SMU-Soka International Peace Symposium were instituted in November 2015 and March 2016 respectively with the generous support of the Soka Gakkai Singapore. Established in honour of the late Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, former president of the Soka Gakkai International, these annual events seek to promote the theme of peace and harmony, and put into practice Dr. Ikeda’s unwavering conviction of dialogue as a means of peacekeeping through addressing ways of transforming threat and difficulty into cooperation and mutual growth.