Rate My Professor Paulin Tay Straughan

Professor Paulin Tay Straughan is a Professor of Sociology (Practice) at the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University. She served as Dean of Students from 2017 to 2025 and is the Director of the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the National University of Singapore awarded in 1985, a Master of Arts from the University of Virginia awarded in 1988, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Virginia awarded in 1991. Her research focuses on the sociology of health, well-being and ageing, work and family, medical sociology including childhood obesity, preventive health behaviour, successful ageing and infectious diseases, sociology of family covering marriage, parenthood, fertility patterns and courtship, and sociology of work and organisational behaviour including flexiwork arrangements.

Straughan has served as Principal Investigator on four projects awarded more than S$10 million in funding from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social and Family Development, and AI Singapore between 2018 and 2022. She was a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2009 to 2011, during which she advocated for work-life balance and a more pro-family social environment. At SMU she teaches courses including Research Methods in Sociology and Political Science and Medical Sociology.