About Me

Imogene L. Lim, PhD   Chinese calligraphy: Lum Mo Jun

is an ethnoarchaeologist by training (BA Hons, Simon Fraser University; AM & PhD, Brown University) in VIU’s Department of Anthropology, and Global Studies Program. She served as Chair of the Anthropology Department from 2006-09 and 2012-15. Her research interests include: foraging societies, rock art, ethnicity, the Chinese diaspora in North America (archaeology & ethnohistory), and the anthropology of food.  She has worked with diverse communities in BC and abroad, and more specifically, for the past two decades those on Vancouver Island. In it’s inaugural year, 2018, Dr. Lim was awarded the VIU President’s Award for Community Engagement (Community-Engaged Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity Award). She is also the recipient of the 2019 Deans’ Scholarship, Research and Creative Activity Award. In 2021, she received the 2020 BC Medal of Good Citizenship. From 2015-17, she was a co-researcher on a SSHRC project, Asian Canadians on Vancouver Island.  Dr. Lim was re-appointed a member of the Editorial Board of BC Studies (from 2017).  Her community contributions include appointments to the board of the Laurier Institution (2017-21), the Coal Creek Historic Park Advisory Committee (Cumberland, Vancouver Island, 2008-21), the Nanaimo Local Immigration Partnership Council (2018-19), BC Legacy Initiatives Advisory Council (2014-18) to “support and advise government on how to implement recommendations made in the Chinese Historical Wrongs Consultation Final Report” (see Apology for Historical Wrongs Legacy), and the Premier’s Chinese Canadian Community Advisory Committee (2018), as well as, being a founding member and former Board Director of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC.  In 2020, Dr. Lim was appointed a Board member of the Chinese Canadian Museum Society of BC, which will lead the development and operation of the first Chinese Canadian Museum.

I Lim 'cartoon' from E2GM

Courtesy of David HT Wong, from Escape to Gold Mountain (2012).

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
— Will Durant, historian (1885-1981)

Last updated 2023-08-30