The first networking event organised by the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) was held successfully on Thursday, 27 April 2023. Around 60 faculty members and research students from the Faculty of Arts joined the tea gathering at the Arts & Humanities Hub at the G/F of Fung King Hey Building.

Prof. Jeremy Yellen, the Acting Director of RIH and Prof. Stuart McManus, the Acting Director of Digital Humanities Initiatives briefed the guests on the work of RIH and introduced the new initiatives in the beginning of the gathering. Then, a warm welcome speech was given by Dean of Arts, Professor Max Xiaobing Tang. In his speech, Dean Tang encouraged the faculty members and research students to unleash their research creativities and potentials by seizing the RIH Interdisciplinary Reading Groups sponsorship for the RPg students and the Interdisciplinary Initiatives for the faculty members.

It was a joyful gathering with good foods, good drinks, refreshing ideas and inspiring discussions.

The Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) invites proposals from the research postgraduate (RPg) student community to form interdisciplinary reading groups in the academic year 2023/24. The purpose of this initiative is to promote more interaction among RPg students from different disciplines and programmes.

Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

1. Reading groups are expected to be initiated and organized by RPg students from the Faculty of Arts.
2. Such groups should be open to anyone interested, including RPg students, research staff and faculty members from across departments.
3. Each group should have five or more members from at least two disciplines or programmes and meet at least three times per academic year. The group is expected to read and discuss scholarship from different disciplines and/or to read and workshop participants’ papers or work-in-progress.
4. Each group may invite a guest participant (such as an author whose work is on the reading list), either from CUHK or from outside CUHK, to lead a particular meeting and discussion during the school year.
5. Supported reading groups will be publicized on the RIH website.

Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

6. Each group should have a Coordinator responsible for managing group activities.
7. The Coordinator will submit an application on behalf the group and present a report on group activities at the conclusion of the school year.
8. The Coordinator will also help manage the expenses of the group.

Support to Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

9. The RIH will provide logistical assistance (such as scheduling a meeting place and making arrangements for a visitor) to the group.
10. Each group will receive up to HK$15,000 to cover the general costs of the reading group (e.g. books for members if e-copies are unavailable and post-meeting meals) and expenses for inviting a guest participant. A group may submit a special request for other expenses.

Interested RPg students should submit a proposal using this template.

Completed proposals should be sent to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk by 9 June 2023. Please send inquiries to the same email address as well.

Applications will be reviewed by the Director of RIH and endorsed by the Faculty Dean. Results will be announced in July 2023.

The Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) invites proposals from faculty members to establish interdisciplinary initiatives in the Faculty of Arts that explore, incubate and foster new knowledge, fresh ideas, or innovative methodologies in the humanities. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty members with shared intellectual interests and ready to develop research in new areas with the support of a knowledgeable, diverse group of colleagues.

Research Groups and Research Areas

1. Each group should have three or more faculty members from at least two disciplines or programmes.
2. We welcome proposals centered on interdisciplinary collaborative research in the arts and humanities around a theme, a geographical area, a historical period, a genre, a concept, a paradigm, or any other well-defined topics.
3. Each proposal should include plans for faculty seminars and/or small-scale workshops.
4. We encourage collaborations with scholars and practitioners outside the Faculty of Arts or beyond CUHK.

Coordinator of the Research Groups

5. Each group should have a Coordinator who is responsible for managing group activities.
6. The Coordinator will submit the application on behalf of the group and present a report on group activities at the conclusion of the academic year.
7. The Coordinator will also help manage the expenses of the group.

Support to Research Groups

8. The RIH will provide logistical assistance (such as scheduling a meeting/event space and making arrangements for visiting scholars) to the group.
9. Each group will receive up to HK$150,000 to cover the costs of organizing any of a wide variety of activities—from workshops to academic conferences, exhibitions to performances and movie screenings, or other unique initiatives designed to advance the academic profile of the Faculty of Arts. A group may submit a special request for other expenses.

Interested faculty members should submit a preliminary proposal according to this template.

Completed proposals should be sent to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk by 9 June 2023. Applications will be reviewed by the Director of RIH and endorsed by the Faculty Dean. Results will be announced in July 2023.

Day of Digital Humanities (DH)

A Day in the Life of the Digital Humanities is an event where digital humanists from around the world document what they do. Day of DH began in 2009, at the University of Alberta and has been hosted by other institutions since that time. Day of DH has also been adopted by specific language communities that extend beyond national borders. On 24 April 2023, the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) in collaboration with the University Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab hosted the first-ever Day of DH on the University campus to celebrate the development of digital humanities.

We were honoured to have invited Professor Donald Sturgeon, creator and administrator of Chinese Text Project (ctext.org) and Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Durham University (UK) as the keynote speaker. In the keynote talk “Working with pre-modern Chinese texts in the digital age”, Prof. Donald Sturgeon showed the audiences how enormous amount of pre-modern Chinese texts could be manipulated and analysed with the help of DH.

Topic: Working with pre-modern Chinese texts in the digital age
Pre-modern Chinese texts have been objects of scholarship for hundreds, and in many cases thousands, of years. Over this time, technological innovations have repeatedly transformed how scholars interact with these materials in their everyday work. This talk focuses on developments and changes to these modes of interaction since the beginning of the digital age. In particular, it will focus on the role of different digital representations of content, how these connect to one another, and their advantages and limitations in practice.

Just before lunch, participants had a guided tour at the Digital Scholarship Lab and the MakerSpace to understand how the library DH supports and 3-D printing sparks greater creativity and collaboration in solving problems in different fields.

Prof. McManus, Acting Director of Digital Humanities Initiatives Program gave an introduction on the upcoming DH courses and programs in the next semester.

To echo the theme of Day of DH, RIH invited Faculty of Arts students from different universities to share their passion on digital research methodologies. Professor Javier Cha, Digital Humanities in the Department of History, HKU and his students shared and exchanged ideas of their on-going DH projects with the participants.

Date: 24 April 2023 (Monday)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab (G/F, University Library), the Chinese University of Hong Kong

10:00 Keynote talk by Prof. Donald Sturgeon “Working with pre-modern Chinese texts in the digital age”

11:30 DS Lab Tour & 3-D Printing Demo

13:00 Lunch (will be provided for full-day participants)

14:15 Introduction to DH course & programming

15:15 Short Break

15:30 DH project presentations

17:00 Conclusion

The RIH Digital Humanities Research (Teaching Staff) Seed Grants program application is open. The deadline to apply is 30 April, 2023.
In 2023, the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) will fund up to 3 teaching staff research projects that are intended using digital technologies in their humanities research.

Awardees will each receive up to a HK$10,000 grant.
 Visit Apply page
 Share program flyer with others

Who Should Apply

Teaching staff affiliated with the Faculty of Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This program supports teaching staff who are intended to apply digital technologies in their research projects.

Benefits

Awardees will each receive up to HK$10,000 grant.

Key Dates

22 February 2023: Application Opens
30 April, 2023: Application deadline (5:00 p.m.)
8 May, 2023: Grantee notification

Use of Funds

Applicants should submit a proposal with a budget indicating how the Grant will be spent, payment/reimbursement will be settled against valid invoices/receipts. All expenditure must be in compliance with the University fiscal regulations.

Grant funding can cover or offset expenditures such as:
Program-related research expenses (materials, analysis),
Prototype development, testing, and validation,
Publication of data, and
Other relevant expenses.

Program Expectations

Grantees will require to give a project completion presentation to share their digital humanities research experience. And to acknowledge having received the Grant from the Grantor in their research papers.

Contact

For more information about the program, email Ms. Basmah Lok, The Research Institute for the Humanities.

 Visit Apply page

Success on the job market: Interviews and teaching demonstrations

Date: 24 February 2023 (Friday)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Online via Zoom
Eligibility: CUHK postgraduate student
Registration:  Registration and Attendance System (cuhk.edu.hk)

‘Do you plan on applying for academic jobs? Want to know more about how to perform well in interviews and teaching demonstrations?’

If a hiring committee has shortlisted you for a job, you will be invited to an interview and, possibly, to give a teaching demonstration. Join us for this 90-minute session, during which two of our former Research Postgraduate Students, Dr. Katon Lee, Lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), and Dr. Zigui Li, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sun Yat-Sen University, share their strategies and tips on how to prepare for a successful job interview and teaching demonstration. The session will consist of a 60 minute share session by Drs. Lee and Li, followed by a 30 minute Q and A. All are welcome!

Note: this session will be held online via zoom. The zoom link will be provided to students upon successful registration to the session.

Success on the job market: CVs and cover letters

Do you plan on applying for academic jobs? Want to know more about how to write an effective cover letter and CV?

Cover letters and CVs are the first things hiring committees review and the most important part of a job application. Join us for this 90-minute session, during which Profs. Benny Lim and Xuenan Cao, from the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, share their tips and strategies on how to write effective cover letters and CVs. The session will consist of a 60 minute sharing session by Profs. Lim and Cao, followed by a 30 minute Q and A. All are welcome!

Date: 3 February (Friday)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00pm
Venue: YIA LT3

Click here to register.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Academic Entrepreneurship: Lessons from History (Zoom)

Speaker: Dr. Michael Tworek
CEO & Co-Founder, Polis Educational Solutions
Associate, Department of History, Harvard University

16 January 2023 (Mon)
12 noon (HKT)/ 11PM (EST) 15 Jan
Online via Zoom

About the event

Most people don’t associate entrepreneurs with historians. This talk will explore how historical scholarship can be a fruitful springboard for startup ideas in tech. Using his personal example of starting two successful companies in the last five years, Dr. Tworek will discuss how his own research and teaching in the history of education and Renaissance humanism informed his journey to becoming a CEO and startup founder.

About the speaker

Dr. Michael Tworek is a research associate in the Harvard History Department, where he earned his PhD in 2014. He is an affiliate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. Michael’s research and teaching focus on the history of education and intellectual and cultural life of early modern Europe from transcontinental and global perspectives.

Michael’s work has been supported by Fulbright (IIE/U.S. State Department), the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Fulbright-Hays (U.S. Department of Education), Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS).

Concurrently, Michael is also the CEO and co-founder of Polis, an edtech startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that has grown out of his research and teaching and is currently part of a select alumni cohort of companies at the iLab at Harvard Business School.

The RIH Digital Humanities Student Seed Grants program application is open. The deadline to apply is 26 January, 2023.
In 2023, the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) will fund up to 5 undergraduate final year projects and postgraduate theses that are intended using digital technologies in their humanities research.

Awardees will each receive a HK$4,000 grant.
🔗 Visit Apply page
🔗 Share program flyer with others

Who Should Apply

Undergraduate senior years students and postgraduate students affiliated with the Faculty of Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

This program supports students who are intended to apply digital technologies in their theses/ final year projects/ dissertations. The deadline to apply for the 2023 Students Seed Grants is 26 January 2023.

Benefits

Awardees will each receive a HK$4,000 grant.

Key Dates

12 December, 2022: Application Opens
9 January 2023 (5pm): Applicant Info Session on Zoom (Registration)
26 January, 2023: Application deadline (5:00 p.m.)
7 February, 2023: Grantee notification

Use of Funds

Applicants should submit a proposal with a budget indicating how the Grant will be spent, payment/reimbursement will be settled against valid invoices/receipts. All expenditure must be in compliance with the University fiscal regulations.

Grant funding can cover or offset expenditures such as:
Program-related research expenses (materials, analysis),
Prototype development, testing, and validation,
Publication of data, and
Other relevant expenses.

Program Expectations

Grantees will require to give a project completion presentation to share their digital humanities research experience. And to acknowledge having received the Grant from the Grantor in their theses/ final year projects/ dissertations.

Contact

For more information about the program, email Ms. Basmah Lok, The Research Institute for the Humanities.

🔗 Visit Apply page

Please click here to register.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

The Documentary Archaeology of Late Medieval Europe: A Contribution to Digital Scholarship (Zoom)

Speaker: Professor Daniel Lord Smail, Department of History, Harvard University

28 November 2022 (Mon)
10AM (HKT)/ 9PM (EST)
Online via Zoom
Registration: https://bit.ly/3DgoCyj 

About the event:
European archives preserve thousands of household or estate inventories from the period 1250-1500 CE. These records are similar in nature to records known in China as fendan or yizhu, which were generated by the process of household division (fenjia). Estate inventories provide valuable insights into European material culture in an era before the rise of the modern global economy.

The DALME project (https://dalme.org/) seeks to collect, transcribe, publish, and analyze a sample of inventories from later medieval Europe. This talk will present the collection and describe the methodologies and techniques of digital scholarship that Prof. Smail’s team currently developing and implementing.

About the speaker:
Professor Daniel Lord Smail is Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard University, where he works on the history and anthropology of Mediterranean societies between 1100 and 1600 and on deep human history. In medieval European history, his work has explored the legal, social, and cultural history of the cities of Mediterranean Europe, with a focus on Marseille in the later Middle Ages. He has covered subjects ranging from women and Jews to legal history and spatial imagination, which was the subject of his first book, Imaginary Cartographies: Possession and Identity in Late Medieval Marseille (1999). His most recent book, Legal Plunder: Households and Debt Collection in Late Medieval Europe (Harvard University Press, 2016), approaches transformations in the material culture of the later Middle Ages using household inventories and inventories of debt collection from Lucca and Marseille. With Gabriel Pizzorno and Laura Morreale and contributors, he recently published the online collection “The Documentary Archaeology of Late Medieval Europe.” He is currently working on a book featuring an enslaved Berber woman in early fifteenth-century Marseille who engineered her own self-manumission.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Early Modern Letters Online: (Re)Collecting Correspondence and (Re)Connecting Correspondence Networks (ZOOM)

Speaker: Ms. Miranda Lewis

Date: 14 November 2022 (Mon)
Time: 5pm (HKT)/ 9am (GMT)
Online via Zoom
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3EZM5Ff 

About the event: 

Based on the work of the Oxford digital humanities research project Cultures of Knowledge, this paper will discuss the evolution of an international union catalogue of early modern letters. Citing examples from a wide range of correspondences, it will discuss how best to recombine the written exchanges recorded in manuscript letters that are preserved today in numerous archives around the world, whilst also enabling scholars to interrogate the accumulated metadata in revealing ways.

About the speaker:

Ms. Miranda Lewis is the editor of the union catalogue of correspondence Early Modern Letters Online. Miranda is an Associate Member of the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford, where she works and publishes on a range of early modern correspondence-related topics.

Postgraduate Career Development Workshop

Presenting Your Research at an Academic Conference

Interested in presenting your work at an academic conference?  Want to know more about how to prepare an engaging research talk or poster presentation?

Join us for this 90-minute session, during which Prof. James St. Andre of the Department of Translation and Prof. Tongle Sun of the Department of English will share their strategies for giving effective virtual and in-person research talks and poster presentations. The session will consist of a 60 minute presentation by Profs. St. Andre and Sun, followed by a 30 minute Q & A. All are welcome!

Date: 10 November 2022 (Thu)
Time: 4;30 – 6:00pm
Venue: YIA LT7

Click here to view Prof. James St. Andre’s Presentation

Click here to view Prof. Tongle Sun’s Presentation

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

OpenGulf: Toward a Post-National Digital History 

Speakers:
Professor Nora Barakat, Department of History, Stanford University, and
Professor David Wrisley, Department of Digital Humanities, New York University Abu Dhabi 

Date: Monday, 24 October 2022
Time:  12:00PM (HKT)
Online via Zoom
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3RQQRru 

This lecture will discuss transnational research collaboration on the interconnected histories of the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean Rim. Professor Barakat and Professor Wrisley argue that a multilingual, multi-archive approach is necessary to construct a future of historical inquiry for the region and that it is the digital which allows researchers to bring those histories into explicit dialogue. The talk will also feature examples of handwritten text recognition (HTR), mapping and textual analysis.

Digital Humanities Initiative

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship
3 – 7 July 2023

Eligibility:

• CUHK Faculty of Arts Undergraduate (final year) / Postgraduate Students
• Attended at least 3 Digital Scholarship and Research Data Workshops organised by the University Library
  

This scholarship will provide travel support (registration, flights and accommodation) to the awardees to attend the Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School 2023. The selection process will require students to propose a digital humanities project for completion upon their return.

Application Deadline: 1 March, 2023

Apply now online 

For enquiries, please send email to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk or call RIH General Office T: 3943 2786

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Digital Resources for the History of the Book (Zoom)

A presentation of the international digital resources which support sophisticated historical research on the European printed book heritage

Speaker: Professor Cristina Dondi
Professor of Early European Book Heritage, and Oakeshott Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities at Lincoln College, University of Oxford.

Date: 17 October 2022 (Mon)
Time: 16:00 – 17:30  (HKT) / 09:00 – 10:30 (BST)
Online via Zoom
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3rAcd1y

About the event: 

A presentation of the international digital resources which support sophisticated historical research on the European printed book heritage

About the speaker:

Professor Cristina Dondi is Professor of Early European Book Heritage, and Oakeshott Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. She is also the Secretary of the Consortium of European Research Libraries. During the period 2014-2019 she was the Principal Investigator of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project, funded by the European Research Council.

Her research focuses on the history of printing and the booktrade in 15th century Europe, using surviving books as primary historical sources to understand the economic and social impact of the printing revolution on European society. Also, on the reconstruction of dispersed book collections and the transmission of texts in print. https://www.lincoln.ox.ac.uk/Fellows/CristinaDondi

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Is there a Digital Legal History? 

Speaker: Dr. Andreas Wagner, Digital Humanities Coordinator, Max-Planck-Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory (mpilhlt, Frankfurt)

Date: 10 October 2022 (Mon)
Time: 16:00 – 17:30  (HKT)
Online via Zoom
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3RDyI10 
Registration Deadline: 7 October 2022 (Friday)

About the event 
In this talk, Dr. Wagner will sketch how, in legal historical literature, Digital Humanities develop a profile distinct from literary, historical and empirical legal studies. In comparison to other literary genres, the law’s emphasis on proven efficiency and predictability, rather than on originality, means that text re-use strategies are paramount. However, different legal contexts employ different terminology (what one English-language constitution calls a chamber, another may call a house) posing significant challenges. In contrast to ‘general’ historical studies, legal history is interested in extracting normative motives – prescriptions, conditions, roles – from sources directly rather than extracting events, persons, places and perhaps extrapolating historical regimes of normativity from that basis. Finally, compared with applied legal and empirical legal studies, the formulaic style that is common in legal sources (and convenient for processing) contrasts with the less-resourced and non-regular character of historical languages. 

About the speaker 
Dr. Andreas Wagner (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1835-1653) is Digital Humanities Coordinator at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt, and collaborator of the project “The School of Salamanca” of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. He has obtained a PhD in philosophy in 2008, and has worked with digital methods and digital editions since 2013. In terms of DH, his main areas of interest are Digital Editions, NLP and Knowledge Graphs; however, he is also still studying and publishing on early modern political and legal thought. Topics of his recent publications include early modern international law, data modelling with uncertain knowledge, and text mining in legal history.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Digital Humans – Exploring the Humanity in Digital Humanities (Zoom)

Speaker: Dr. Megan Gooch, Head of the Centre for Digital Scholarship, University of Oxford

Date: 5 October 2022 (Wed)
Time: 17:00 – 18:30  (HKT)
Online via Zoom
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3R17IHR 
Registration Deadline: 5 October 2022 (Wed) 12 noon (HKT)

About the event

Digital humanities means many things to many people – we talk of DH as being a range of methods, technologies, theoretical approaches to ask and answer research questions. But unlike traditional forms of humanities research, the research projects is not often one that can be tackled alone. DH nearly always requires collaboration with people from different subject domains, with technical experts and often with non-academic staff such as librarians, museum staff or administrative support. This paper explores the impact of this growth in collaboration – and some of the questions it raises about the nature of DH research – who ‘owns’ the research, who is credited for it, how are collaborative research outputs sustained? But perhaps more fundamental is the question of the ‘soft’ and most definitely human skills that are needed to engage in a fundamentally digital mode of research.

About the speaker

Dr Megan Gooch is the Head of the Centre for Digital Scholarship at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Digital Humanities @ Oxford Summer School. She works in the Bodleian Libraries and University administration service to support digital scholarship across the University. Megan previously worked in the museums sector and held jobs at Historic Royal Palaces and the British Museum in curatorial, public engagement and research roles.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE TALK SERIES

Speaker: Professor Javier Cha, Department of History, The University of Hong Kong

Date: Monday, 19 September 2022
Time: 16:00 –17:30
Hybrid event: in person or on Zoom
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab, G/F University Library
Medium of Instruction: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3q3ryqy
Registration Deadline: 16 September 2022 (Friday)
  

About the event
Fine-Tuning the Historian’s Macroscope: Data Reuse and Medieval Korean Biographical Records in Neo4j is part of the Digital Humanities Initiative Talk offered by the Research Institute for the Humanities of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in collaboration with the University Library.  

In this talk, Prof. Cha will show us how to break new ground on digital historical scholarship. Prof. Cha will propose the idea that historians build project-specific personal libraries rather than engage in macro-level “distant readings” of a centralized repository. His methodological intervention emphasizes contextualization and authentication in data-driven historical research, which, in technological terms, translates into robust management of records culled from a variety of pertinent databases. Using medieval Korean biographical records as an example, Prof. Cha will demonstrate how digital historians can use a Neo4j-powered macroscope to zero in on potentially insightful fields of view.
 

About the speaker
Prof. Javier Cha is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong. As an intellectual historian of medieval Korea and a technologist, he has been active in the digital humanities community for fourteen years. Prof. Cha is the director of the Big Data Studies Lab, which examines data centers and the global telecommunications infrastructure in a manner comparable to how a book historian investigates medieval manuscripts and libraries. He serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing and Cursor Mundi, as well as the international nominations committee for Digital Humanities Awards. 

The Research Institute for the Humanities, the Chinese University of Hong Kong 2023-25 Postdoctoral Fellowship

Institute Type:            College/University
Location:                     Hong Kong, China
Position:                      Postdoctoral Fellow

The Research Institute of the Humanities (RIH) in the Faculty of Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) invites applications for 2 two-year postdoctoral fellowships that will begin in August 2023.

Expectations: During the two-year period, fellows are expected to work on a major research project, to attend RIH events, and to participate in the intellectual life in the Faculty of Arts at CUHK.

Applicants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the research interests and focus areas in the Faculty of Arts as well as the strategic priorities of CUHK. It will be helpful for applicants to identify in their application faculty member(s) they wish to work with or consult during their fellowship at the RIH.

Eligibility: Applicants must have their doctoral degree conferred by the time of appointment, but should be no more than three years beyond receipt of the doctoral degree.

The fellowship appointment is non-renewable and cannot be held concurrently with other fellowships or academic positions.

Support: Salary will be highly competitive, commensurate with qualifications and experience. Fellows will also be eligible for research support for attending conferences and for other scholarly activities. More detailed information will be provided at a later stage in the process.

How to apply: The application deadline is 5 March 2023. Awards will be announced early May 2023.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, current CV, a research statement of no more than 1,000 words, a 25-page writing sample, and a list of 3 referees.

Applications will be accepted online through the portal at the CUHK Human Resources Website.

Potential applicants may direct questions about the fellowship to Ms. Basmah Lok, project coordinator at the RIH, at basmahlok@cuhk.edu.hk.

Free and open to the public, this series of webinars will present research by a diverse group of scholars from the Faculty of Arts at CUHK. Each speaker will bring refreshing and historical perspectives on our contemporary moment, either directly or through reflection. Together, these public events will speak for the value and relevance of humanities scholarship at a time when we face profound global challenges. Lectures will be about 30 minutes in length, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/web/en-gb/aboutus/events/534-public-online-lectures-arts-andhumanities- in-the-face-of-global-challenges

The Research Institute for the Humanities and the Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau will host a two-day conference on 5-6 March 2020 in Hong Kong. Historians, urbanists, architects and specialists in heritage and museums from Hong Kong and France will exchange their ideas on urban planning and heritage conservation in Hong Kong and Paris.

Cities are a crucial attribute of the rise of human civilisation. The identity of a city is always inseparable from its history. Unlike the history of politics, economy, thoughts or cultures, which observes a city merely from the perspective of personalities or events, urban history analyses a city’s evolution process, the turning points in its transformation and the reasons for its breakthroughs in order to identify keys to its future development. A review of a city allows us to reconstruct our identity by revisiting various landmarks, historical sites and characteristics of spatial design. The process by which a city is built from scratch depends on its geographical environment, inhabitants, economic resources, development status of its neighbouring regions, as well as objective economic and political circumstances. As a city’s population grows continuously and its structure changes, its government’s pace of urban development is influenced by the measures employed to address urgent social needs. How does a city’s early construction and planning reflect the cultural encounters and conflicts of different civilisations? What are the factors that cause town planning to adapt and change with the times? What opportunities does its government make use of to introduce urban development models of other cities? How major a role does conservation and revitalisation of historical sites and buildings play in urban renewal policies? Are there conflicts between urban renewal and new planning? How do the authorities balance the interests of different parties through urban planning and achieve established goals? These are all questions worth exploring in depth.

To facilitate discussion and exchange of ideas, the conference will be organised into three sessions:

1. Origins and transformation
2. Conception and governance
3. Conservation and revitalisation

經過前三屆的經驗纍積，今年（2019）中大伊斯蘭文化節不只擴大了規模，其節目內容亦比以往更爲豐富。文化節開幕禮嘉賓、大學通識教育主任梁美儀教授認為，這一文化盛宴是｢培養世界公民身份的重要校園活動之一｣。梁教授形容文化節八天的活動為｢經過精心構思，並在藝術與智性兩方面均多姿多彩｣。另外，文化節首次吸引到媒體採訪，且在電視節目黃金時段獲專題報導。

本屆文化節由10月26日開始至11月2日結束。與去年一樣，阿文書法工作坊為文化節拉開了序幕，緊接的是繽紛多彩的慶典日活動。在中大文化廣場舉行的慶典日將伊斯蘭文化的多個面向鮮活地呈現出來，學生、教職員踴躍參加，氣氛熱烈，黃金時間電視節目｢港臺電視31自在8點半｣更派出攝製隊前來拍攝。其後的清真美食工作坊，讓參加者度過了一個既有教育意義又輕鬆愜意的夜晚。文化節期間的星期五，在中大校園內進行的伊斯蘭聚禮亦開放給教外人士旁觀，成為促進跨文化理解的一個機會。文化節其他活動還包括兩場英文講座（題目分別為：｢從伊斯蘭的視角看和平與正義｣與｢伊斯蘭與包容｣）、電影（Reluctant Fundamentalist，中譯名｢拉合爾茶館的陌生人｣）觀賞與討論會及清真寺導賞團。

清真美食工作坊是今年文化節的嶄新嘗試，對參加者來說，無疑是一次興奮的體驗。工作坊首先安排專人講解何爲清真（halal）飲食，隨後問答環節的同時，有外籍穆斯林婦女現場製作土耳其菜式。最後，工作坊準備了多國不同風味的清真美食，供參加者品嘗，整個活動由此進入高潮。總括來説，輕鬆愉快的氛圍、教育意義、琳琅美食，這三個元素把工作坊打造成一次非凡的體驗。

今年伊斯蘭文化節報名人數刷新了記錄，主要原因是文化節前發生了與伊斯蘭相關的社會事件。文化節舉辦前一周，九龍清真寺於警方在彌敦道驅散示威者時，被其藍色水炮誤射而成為新聞頭條。次日上午，香港特首與警務處長登門致歉。由此九龍清真寺頓時成為全城關注的焦點。位於繁華商業區的黃金地段，九龍清真寺長期被本地華人視爲一處神秘的地方，對之極爲好奇。在如此背景下，無怪文化節的清真寺導賞團成為最受歡迎的項目，報名人數頓時躍升。九龍清真寺事件引發公眾對清真寺及伊斯蘭文化產生濃厚興趣，甚至有多個社交平臺主動幫助宣傳文化節活動。期望公眾對伊斯蘭文化的興趣在這一巔峰時期後能夠持續下去。伊斯蘭文化節有望成爲市民大衆瞭解伊斯蘭文化的主要途徑。

與往年一樣，第四屆伊斯蘭文化節旨在推動校園多元文化交流，以及促進中大與社會大眾對伊斯蘭文化的瞭解。文化節是中大伊斯蘭文化研究中心舉辦的周年活動。

活動錄影：https://youtu.be/zBh91tWp4rE

The RIH hosted a two-day conference on 6-7 December 2018 on Environmental Humanities. It brought together ideas and insights of 35 scholars from the continents of America, Asia and Europe to probe beyond the realm of ecology of narratives that overwhelmingly centred on research about nature but without paying due consideration to human behaviour. The information gathered in this conference came from varied experiences gained from a broad spectrum of cultural aspects, analyses of different natures, from history to culture, from art to religions, and from language to philosophy.

The conference was honoured to have Prof. FOK Tai-fai, Pro Vice-Chancellor, and Prof. LAI Ping-chiu, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, officiating at the opening ceremony. The keynote speech was presented by Prof. Frederick DAVIS, R. Mark Lubbers Chair in the History of Science, Professor of History, Department of History, Purdue University, USA. The title of his speech was “The Wonder of Rachel Carson: Nature and Emotion in Environmental Humanities”.

Professor Ho, a social and economic historian who previously worked as a research consultant at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, now teaches in the History Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is Director of the Research Institute for the Humanities. She has published numerous books and articles on Hong Kong and social and economic history of modern Chinese society, with a focus on the urbanisation of modern day Hong Kong. Her books have focused on aspects of city development such as land use, colonial government history, public housing and urban planning. She is also interested in urban space and social development, power and governance, environment, tradition versus modernity and globalisation. She firmly believes that interaction between academia and society can facilitate integration of theory into society for the betterment of people’s daily lives.

Tung Wah Hospital has preserved its historical documents since its establishment in 1870. These valuable materials are indispensable for understanding modern Hong Kong’s social evolution, as well as its medical history. With the use of Tung Wah archives, this lecture offers new perspectives on the study of modern medical history by addressing the following topics: How was Western medicine introduced into the Chinese hospital? What were the controversies over the preservation or abolishment of Chinese medicine? How effective were Chinese and Western medical treatments?

Two workshops on the usage of “Multi-function Chinese Character Database” were organized by Research Centre for Humanities Computing:

The Research Institute for the Humanities will host a two-day conference on 6-7 Dec 2018, gathering scholars from CUHK and institutes across the world. Scholars will share their work as part of their effort to foster interdisciplinary conversation and learning. Presenters will bring a humanities perspective to the understanding of landscapes, empires, imagined environments, and the boundaries of nature and humanity.

Environmental humanities involves human beings and non-humans (animals, plants, minerals, objects, etc.), as well as a certain number of critical positions (post-capitalism, post-humanism, post-colonialism, rejection of anthropocentrism, distance with constructivism) that deserve to be discussed and confronted. The objective is to enrich pre-existing conjunctions across environmental philosophy, environmental history, ecocriticism (cultural geography, cultural anthropology and political ecology, including their debates as captured by environmental humanities. These alliances could help build environmental humanities across regions, environments, and animals.

To contribute to such debates, the Conference will focus on seven broadly formulated topics and questions:

1. The Management of Nature in the Ancient World
2. Eco-Humanities: History, Narratives and Reflections
3. Body and Nature
4. Religion and Environment
5. The High North: Arctic Encounters
6. Nature at the Point of No Return? Philosophical Reflections
7. Survival of the Fittest: A Historical Perspective

The Research Institute for the Humanities and the Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities will host a two-day international conference on Environmental Humanities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong on 6-7 December 2018.

It gathers scholars from CUHK and institutes from across the world to share their work as part of their effort to foster interdisciplinary conversation and learning. Presenters will bring a humanities perspective to understanding the landscapes, empires, imagined environments, and the boundaries of nature and humanity.

Environmental humanities involve human beings and non-humans (animals, plants, minerals, objects, etc.), as well as a number of critical positions such as post-capitalism, post-humanism, post-colonialism, rejection of anthropocentrism, and distance with constructivism that deserve to be discussed and confronted. The objective is to enrich pre-existing conjunctions across environmental philosophy, environmental history, ecocriticism, cultural geography, cultural anthropology and political ecology, including their debates as captured by environmental humanities. These alliances can help build environmental humanities across regions and environments.

To contribute to such debates, the conference will focus on seven broadly formulated topics and questions:
1. The Management of Nature in the Ancient World
2. Eco-Humanities: History, Narratives and Reflections
3. Body and Nature
4. Religion and Environment
5. The High North: Arctic Encounters
6. Nature at the Point of No Return? Philosophical Reflections
7. Survival of the Fittest: A Historical Perspective

為期十天的香港中文大學第三屆伊斯蘭文化節於2018年11月20日完滿結束。本屆伊斯蘭文化節由一連串活動組成，包括阿拉伯書法工作坊、慶典日、伊斯蘭系列講座及清真寺導賞團。透過這些繽紛多彩的活動，主辦者嘗試從不同層面和不同面向展示博大精深的伊斯蘭文化，比如從信仰到生活實務，從教室到實地考察，從本港到世界各國。

多項活動中，以11月13日在中大文化廣場上舉行的慶典日最為熱鬧。當天廣場上擺設了7個攤位，中國、中亞、南亞、地中海4個攤位展示世界各地的伊斯蘭文化風情，清真食品攤位預備美味健康的清真食品供大家品嘗，“微笑是一種施捨”攤位宣揚微笑在伊斯蘭教導裡的意義，並為大家拍照留念，還有阿拉伯書法攤位，老師為大家示範阿拉伯書法及贈送書簽。慶典日的午間則進行了文化節的開幕儀式及表演節目，包括古蘭經和喚禮的誦讀、留學生樂器演奏和中國學生武術表演，好讓大家對伊斯蘭文化有方方面面不同的體驗。

另外，最受歡迎的活動可算是清真寺導賞團。11月17日導賞團40多名團友參觀了九龍清真寺和愛群清真寺，參觀期間且有伊斯蘭文化講座、清真點心品嚐，以及穆斯林和非穆斯林之間的互動交流，最後，團友到禮拜殿旁觀穆斯林集體禮拜。多位參加者均表示當天獲益良多，並期望日後有機會多認識伊斯蘭文化。

本屆伊斯蘭文化節其餘4個活動，分別為：
11月10日阿拉伯書法工作坊
11月16日講座“概述伊斯蘭”
11月19日講座“The World of the Qur’an”
11月20日講座“穆罕默德聖人是誰？”

一如以往，本屆伊斯蘭文化節旨在促進校園多元文化交流，並讓中大師生及社會大眾增加對伊斯蘭文化的認識和瞭解。

中大第三屆伊斯蘭文化節由中大伊斯文化研究中心主辦，並得到本港多個穆斯林團體的支援和參與，包括伊斯蘭文化協會（香港）、香港伊斯蘭聯會、香港回教婦女會及香港伊斯蘭青年協會。文化節的慶典日更由中大學生事務處轄下之國際化活動基金贊助部分經費。

Prof. Chen Wei J., Dean of the College of Public Health at National Taiwan University (NTU), Prof. Chiang Tung-liang and Prof. Chang Shu-sen led a group of 17 students from the College of Public Health at NTU to visit the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dean Chen and his team arrived at Hong Kong on Feb 18, 2016, then they were invited to Tung Wah Hospital and Tung Wah Coffin Home to have a visit. Through this visit, they had an understanding of the history of Tung Wah Group Hospitals as both medical care institution and charitable institution.

In the morning of Feb 19, RIH has co-organized a seminar entitled “Nurturing Life in Time” with the the College of Public Health at the National Taiwan University. Prof. Chiang Tung-liang has given a keynote lecture on the topic “A Brief Comparison of Public Health Development in Taiwan and Hong Kong” and there were two themes of the seminar, “Regional Health in Perspectives” and “Saving Life: Reflections”. Dean Chen and Prof. Hsiung has also signed the MOU during this seminar.

On Feb 20 and 21, the NTU team had an academic visiting trip to Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences and Chungking Mansions.

The Research Institute for the Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has host the “Re-viewing Taiwan: Regional Developments in a Global Frame” Workshop on 22–23 October, 2015. The workshop is also co-organized by Collaborative Innovation Center for Peaceful Development of Cross-Strait Relations, Taiwan Research Institute, Xiamen University and Institute of Global and Public Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau. This two-day workshop is held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on 22 October and at University of Macau on 23 October.

Taiwan, like most subjects, can be looked at from many different perspectives, certainly from more than one discipline. “Re-viewing Taiwan: Regional Developments in a Global Frame” has invited directors and scholars of Taiwan studies centers and programs from different regions and institutions to showcase to people how they choose to study this subject and their reasoning for so doing. Thus this workshop addressed the issue from cross-strait relations, Taiwanese arts, literature, and history, as well as a wide variety of disciplinary questions and interdisciplinary considerations.

The Re-viewing Taiwan workshop is sponsored by Andrew W. Mellon foundation “Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging” Project and “Focusing on Taiwan: Health, Peace, Memory” Project.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by Free University of Berlin to give a public lecture on “Envisioning an Eurasian Humanities Exchange”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung introduces the evolution of Chinese humanities at home and abroad, sinological studies in Europe and the regional studies heritage, western civilization as represented in China and Asia, and she also envisions a conversation and a common Future.

Prof. Richard von Glahn, Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, was invited to give a lecture on the development of maritime port cities in East Asia during 16th to 17th century.

Prof. Wong Young-tsu, Graduate Institute of History at the National Central University in Taiwan, was invited to give a lecture on the methodology of the studies on Republican Chinese history.

Prof. Liu Hsiang Kwang, Department of History at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, was invited to give a lecture on the culture of divination and psychological health in Song Dynasty.

Prof. Shen Kuiyi, Department of Visual Arts and Director of Chinese Studies Programme at the University of California, San Diego, was invited to give a lecture on the changing of Chinese traditional painting in post-war Taiwan.

Prof. Liu Kuang Neng, retired professor from the Department of French at National Central University in Taiwan, was invited to give a lecture to share the two films by the famous Taiwanese movie directors Ang Lee, and Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by University of Macau to give a public lecture on “The Relevance of History? Reflections on the Case of Modern Chinese Disciplinarity from the University of Macau （所為何事？從澳大看近代中國歷史學的來龍與去脈）”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung introduces the ownership of an ancient civilization–the founding of modern disciplinary humanities with national character, the “Culture Circle of the Han-Chinese Script”–East-Asian Stake-Holders of “Chineseness”, Chinese academic during the Cold War–Hong Kong and Taiwan as alternatives, and the “National” and “Non-national” Chinese Civilization–from Diasporic and Sinological Perspectives.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by the Department of American Studies, Brown University to give a public lecture on “The Discovery of American Ginseng: A Case Study in Historical Anthropology and Medical Humanities”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung uses the case of American Ginseng to show how new economic and pharmaceutical (even epistemological) possibilities were thrown open with the coming of the “maritime” age that move across borderlands and tested the frontiers of knowledge and frontiers of trade. She also explains that the case is chosen to help us reflect upon the novel, outlandish character that maritime/global history turns out to be in the longue durée of the unfolding of man-made records.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University to give a public lecture on “Chinese History as National Humanities: Views from Taiwan and HK”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung accounts for the classical roots of this Chinese humanities in its own terms, gives a succinct institutional history of related disciplinary character in its modern embodiment of the country’s tertiary education and she also cites a few significant debates in that context so as to give people outside that tradition and history a sense of its going-ons in the modern era.

Prof. Li Yu-chen, Graduate Institute of Religious Studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, was invited to give a lecture on the females vowing as nuns and the formation of community identity of Buddhist nuns in post-war Taiwan.

Prof. Lee Cheuk-yin, Department of Chinese Studies at National University of Singapore, was invited to give a lecture on the changing religious landscape in Singapore with the faculties and students of CUHK.

The conference focused on the changing sense of “belonging” during the Cold War period in China and other regions. It brought together foremost scholars from different fields and areas, including Prof Hsiung Ping-chen from The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Prof Cao Shuji from Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Prof Shen Kui-yi from The University of California, San Diego; Prof Mayfair Yang from The University of California, Santa Barbara. The conference synthesizes existing research to expand to additional stimulating topics on the implication of a Cold War in Greater China region on issues like land reform, art, politics and religion of the cold war period. Papers on visual arts, film, academic institutions, and public health represent newer studies that draw people’s attention in particular. This set of articles are under revision for publication.

> Venue: Conference Room, 2/F, Art Museum East Wing, Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK
> Organizer: Research Institute for the Humanities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
> Co-organizer: The Department of History, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
> Sponsors: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, “Focusing on Taiwan: Health, Peace, Memory” Project
> Conference Summary Report (by Dr. Adam Cathcart): Report

The Humanities are performed not only in lectures, texts, seminars, and classrooms, but also in theatres, concerts, festivals, electronic and networked media, and other sites of intellectual and cultural activity and exchange. But it might also be said that the Humanities are ‘performed’ in a wider field that encompasses social struggles, the machinations and mediated rhetoric of politics, in hospital emergency rooms and police stations, or in global financial markets: places in which subject-object relationships dissolve into one another, or where artistic practices become a kind of performed hermeneutics.

Proudly hosted by the Research Institute for the Humanities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the first CHCI Annual Meeting to be held in Asia with the theme “Performative Humanities” will explore these emerging issues, the ways in which they are transforming scholarly practice and the landscape of the Humanities, and their regional/global inflections.

Our program will feature leading scholars and filmmaker — including a talk by world-renowned Director Tsai Ming-liang — organizational leaders from Asia and beyond, workshops, and opportunities for stimulating interaction with peers from CHCI’s increasingly global membership, including meetings of our member groups and Networks. The city of Hong Kong and the New Territories, with their complex social and cultural histories, will themselves feature in the program in the form of historic meeting venues, culinary experiences, musical performances, poetry readings, and opportunities to engage with the sights and sounds of this incredible city.

In addition, a full morning will be devoted to presentations by scholars from five continents who are participating in CHCI’s Humanities for the Environment and Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging projects. Generously funded by a major, multi-year grant from the A.W. Mellon Foundation, these pilot projects are part of a developing program that will demonstrate the ways in which we might leverage the collective strength of CHCI’s international networks to explore exciting new forms of multi-institutional collaboration. Our over-arching goal in this project is to create models for future CHCI member-driven programs, and we will be devoting time to the work of our project groups in all upcoming Annual Meetings through the life of the grant.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by National Taiwan University to give a public lecture on “行行重行行：全球視野下之臺灣健康與人文之旅 (And Yet Miles to Go: Taiwan Health and Humanities in Global Perspective)”.

> Venue: Conference Room, 2/F, Art Museum East Wing, Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
> Organizer: Taiwan Research Center, Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK
> Co-Organizers: Center for the Comparative Study of Antiquity, Research Institute for the Humanities,CUHK National Cheng Kung University
> Sponsors: Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Fo Guang Vihara of Hong Kong, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by Free University of Berlin to give a public lecture on “Compare So As to Connect: The Mirror Effect of Europe and Asia”.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by “Forum for the Asia in the Humanities/Humanities in Asia Initiative”, UCLA to give a public lecture on “Humanities over the Longue Durée: The Case of Modern China”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung accounts for the classical roots of this Chinese humanities in its own terms, gives a succinct institutional history of related disciplinary character in its modern embodiment of the country’s tertiary education and she also cites a few significant debates in that context so as to give people outside that tradition and history a sense of its going-ons in the modern era.

Prof. Bin Wong, Director of the Asian Institute, UCLA, gave a speech on “Contemporary Consequences of Path Dependent Changes in Relations of Political Authority and Religion in China and Europe: A Millennial Perspective on Problems of Political Belongings”. In the lecture, Prof. Wong examined the roles of religion and secular ideas and institutions in creating commitments of political belonging in four world regions—China, Europe, Middle East, the United States by a comparative approach.

Prof. Richard von Glahn presented a lecture on “Song Coin and Monetary Circulation in Maritime East Asia, 1200–1700” at the RIH of CUHK, for a deeper investigation on the monetary and economic factors which had both bought this region together as well as set societies apart from centuries back.

As a long standing member of the CHCI, RIH will join the Annual and Board Meeting of the CHCI that will be held, from 25 to 27 April 2013, at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. This year’s theme is focused on “Humanities, Publics, and the State” where allowing all members and organizations to explore the philosophical, political, and pragmatic dimensions of public humanities in the context both of current challenges to the university and emerging responses. Major speakers include Christopher Newfield (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Helen Small (Oxford University).

Followed by a welcoming decision made by the CHCI International Advisory Board Meeting in 2012 at Oxford that CUHK will be the next host in 2014, our Director is going to present a preliminary program of the 2014 Annual Meeting and Board Meeting to all CHCI members coming from over 20 countries. CUHK and our Institute are honored to be the host of this “inaugural” CHCI Annual and Board Meeting in Asia. This inaugural event does not merely mark a major milestone for the development and extended network of CHCI in Asia, but to uplift and nourish CUHK’s collaborative research development in Humanities at an international level.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by The Center for the Humanities, Washington University, St Louis to given a public lecture on the topic “Reflections on Children’s Studies: The Perspective from Chinese History.” Through comparative and discursive approach, Prof. Hsiung introduces the basic source materials, research methods, as well as the multi-disciplinary nature of the study of children and childhood in Chinese history.

Prof Chiang Tung-liang, former Director of the College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, is currently the External Humanities Fellow of our Institute, has been invited to deliver a talk related to Health Insurance in Taiwan (臺灣為什麼會有全民健保？ – 意義與啓示) co-organized by the Taiwan Research Centre and our Institute. In this lecture, Prof Chiang shares his views on Health Insurance in Taiwan, its rationale behind, impact and inspiration. Prof Fok Tai Fai, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) of CUHK, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, also joined the lecture who has actively engaged to share his views on the topic with the speaker and the students.

Prof Robert Lee from the American Studies of the Brown University has been invited to deliver a talk on “Carving History on Our Backs”: Violence, Memory and the History of Chinese Workingmen in America organized by our Institute. In this lecture, Prof Lee shares three “hidden transcripts”, a Taoist temple in northern California, a Hongmen initiation catechism, and a scripture dedicated to Guandi to reconstruct a subaltern narrative of social conflict that extended from Guangdong to California in the mid-19th Century. Temple inscriptions, secret society ritual, and the practices of martial arts inscribed a collective memory of violence and shaped an alternative diaspora imaginary. Prof To Wing Kai, a visiting scholar at the Department of History, CUHK, serves as the moderator who also shares his views on the topic with the audience.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, has been invited by Tan Kah Kee College, Xiamen University to give a public lecture on “中國兒童史的開拓與前景：兼及國際「新人文」之發展”. In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung does not only share her own decades of research experience and future research plan in Childhood History with the faculties and students of Xiamen University, she also makes an illustrious address on the global development of humanities subjects.

Dr Huang Ko-wu, Director of Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica has been invited to deliver a talk on靈學與近代中國的知識轉型:民初知識分子對科學、宗教與迷信的再思co-organized by our Institute and the Department of History, CUHK. In this lecture, Dr Huang raises discussions on pneumatology including spirits, mental communication etc., process of knowledge transfer of contemporary China and secularization.

In this lecture, Prof. Huang Ko-wu, director of IMH, AS, explained leading intellectuals’ view on pneumatology during the early 20th century, including their ideas on spirits, mental communication and their implications.

Our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, was also invited by the Asia Institute of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the UCLA Dean of Humanities to give a lecture at the “Asia inthe Humanities/Humanities in Asia Inaugural Lecture” which brings together scholars from the fields of history, literature, religion, and the arts working across time periods and Asian spaces to develop new frames of research and pedagogy. Presenting on “Regional Logic vs Global Humanities: Where to and from Here?”, Prof Hsiung tries to examine the disciplinarity of regional studies vs interdisciplinary humanities from the 19th Century until recently and to invite opportunities for deepening collaboration.

Our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by Prof Bin Wong, the Director of the Asia Institute and a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to give a lecture on the topic “Compassion and Charitable Activities in Late Imperial China: Two Examples”.

With the purpose of enhancing excellence in the humanities through the promotion of co-operation among Asian universities and research institutes, the Asian New Humanities Net (ANHN) serves as a regional network that shares resources of humanities in Asia. Since its establishment in 2004, the ANHN has been serving as an evolving platform that incubates and nurtures the development of humanities in Asia. The ANHN has successfully organized nine meetings in the past seven years, attracting participants from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, as well as North America and Europe. Following the success in organizing the 8th Annual Meeting, RIH had served as the secretariat of the 9th ANHN Annual Meeting, which was hosted by the Shanghai Jiaotong University from 15 to 17 October 2011, with the theme “Towards the Humanities; Social Transformation and Value Reconstruction”. With our Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Sung, presided over the opening, the 9th ANHN Annual Meeting was very well received with participation of an ever larger group of Asian Humanities leaders.

As the secretariat of ANHN, RIH will continue to facilitate the 10th Annual Meeting organized by the College of Liberal Arts, the National Cheng Kung University from 2 to 4 November 2012, with “Asian Humanities and Higher Education in the 21st Century” as the theme of the year.

“Similarities and Differences- The diversified development of Min-yue culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong” (「相似與差異──閩粵到臺港的多元文化發展比較」) is an inter-disciplinary and comparative symposium to be organized by the Min-nan Cultural Studies Centre of National Ch’ang Kung University – one of our strategic partners in Taiwan, and the Taiwan Research Centre of CUHK from 31st October to 1st November, 2012. It aims to invite leading scholars in the fields to reflect upon the dynamics between Min-nan and Cantonese culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and to investigate the similarities and differences between the two prominent cultures in Southern China. The focuses of the symposium consist of architecture, religion, drama and literature. Prof Hoyan Hang Fung from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Prof Chang Ping Hung from the Department of Architecture, Prof. Zhou Jin from the Department of Fine Arts and Prof. He Xi from the Department of History of CUHK will join this symposium.

As a substantiation of the Health and Humanities initiative started by the Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Medicine, the School of Public Health and the Nethersole School of Nursing of CUHK, the 2nd Health and Humanities Symposium will be held at the National Taiwan University from 29 to 30 October 2012. Jointly organized by RIH and the College of Public Health of the National Taiwan University, the Symposium is titled “To Protect Life: Culture, Society, and Health”; and the Vice-Chancellor Prof Joseph Sung has agreed to give a keynote speech at the Symposium. Also, a roundtable will be followed to further deepen the discussion and exchanges on the initiative.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited to give a keynote speech at the Joint Symposium on Medicine and History on “健康﹑人文﹑千古巡禮：中國幼科之例.” Prof. Hsiung traces the history of Chinese pediatrics and explains how it had developed quickly during late imperial China.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the School of Medicine to give a lecture on “生醫路上之會友與輔仁” to their students. By referring to the history of Fu-Jen, Prof Hsiung explains the roots and current syllabus of medical humanities in FJCU. Then, she introduces the current development of medical humanities in western universities.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the College of Medicine to give a lecture on “驀然回首” to all the students in the College of Medicine (6 departments). Not only reviewing her past experience in medical humanities, Prof. Hsiung points out the new path for the reformation of medical education.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the Research Center for the Humanities and the Cogut Center for the Humanities at Brown University to give a lecture on “Saving the Children: Pediatrics in Late Imperial China and Its Public Health Implication.” With reference to texts and graphics of Chinese pediatrics and newborn care, Prof. Hsiung examines the development and popularization of children’s care in late imperial China.

To facilitate academic exchanges on local studies between Hong Kong and Taiwan, Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities (LPC), one of our member centres, and our Institute will host a delegation visit of the National Central University from Taiwan. The visiting scholars will not only visit the Government Record Service, the governmental department which plays a key role in the management of recorded information for the Hong Kong SAR, but attend a seminar with the main topic on “Research experience in Hong Kong history”, which will be held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The delegation of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) is aimed at increasing the academic exchange of CUHK and SJTU. The delegation planned to share with SJTU the postgraduate program and general education of CUHK and also to develop collaboration of the two universities on Arts and Social Sciences, History, and especially the enhancement of the status of Chinese in academics.

Hosted by the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, the Academic Conference on Body and Cognition will be held from 31 August to 2 September in Taipei. Our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping Chen, Prof Gordon Mathews from the Department of Anthropology, Prof Huso Yi from the Jocky Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Prof Desmond Hui and Prof Katrien Jacobs from the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Prof Saulius Geniusas from the Department of Philosophy, as well as Prof Poo Mu Chou from the Department of History of our University will be presenting at the Conference, as so to bring CUHK to renowned experts of bodily feelings and cognition in both Hong Kong and Taiwan for future closer professional collaboration.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at NJU to give a lecture on “童年史新探：嬰戲與幼醫.” Prof. Hsiung introduces the new paths of studies in Chinese Childhood History with two examples – 1) the paintings of playing children and 2) the case of Dr. Hsü Yü-ho, a local pediatrician in Hui-chou during Ch’ien-lung period (Ch’ing Dynasty).

As the most important international organization for the humanities, the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) serves as a network that circulates information and best practices related to the organizational and management dimensions of humanities centers and institutes. With the objective to enhance collaboration and build up partnership with regional leaders, the CHCI Advisory Board moves about the world as a tradition. Further to the previous board meeting held from 2 to 6 November 2011 at CUHK, which was indeed the first CHCI board meeting in Asia, RIH participated in the 2012 CHCI Annual and Board Meeting at Australian National University from 11 to 16 June. In addition to the exchanges on the CHCI member initiatives, namely the Digital Humanities Initiatives, the Humanities for the Environment Initiatives and the Public Humanities Initiatives, the meeting also facilitated presentations by co-conveners of the CHCI Program Planning Projects, including Humanities for the Environment, Integrative Graduate Humanities Education & Research Training (IGHERT), Medical Humanities, as well as Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging. RIH will also join the 2013 CHCI Annual Meeting, titled “The Humanities and the State”, which is scheduled to be held at the University of Kansas, Lawrence from 24 to 27 April 2013, to explore the philosophical, political, and pragmatic dimensions of public humanities in the context both of current challenges to the university and emerging responses.

Our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, met the delegation led by Prof John Fisher, Deputy Vice-Chancellor from the University of Leeds in June at the University to develop long-term fruitful philosophical collaboration. Possibilities of establishing research partnership in areas including English/Linguistics, Theology and Religious Studies, History, inter-disciplinary Applied Ethics, Translation and Arts were also explored.

In addition, our University has signed an agreement with the University of Leeds to fasten joint research collaborations on Health and Humanities through staff and student mobility programs, including the Faculty Exchange Program and the PhD Student Exchange Program. It is believed that these programs would not only foster stronger ties between faculty members of CUHK and the University of Leads for academic and research exchange, and develop institutional level partnership between the two universities, but also increase the visibility of CUHK as a world-class research university through student mobility.

In May, our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the Center for Humanities and Medicine, The University of Hong Kong to give a lecture at the “Child Health and Humanitarian Emergencies” Conference. The conference aimed at connecting the current practices of children protection/childhood with the historical perspectives and humanitarian concern. It also evaluated how child health and “humanitarian” intervention were elaborated; and the way both helped shape the modern definitions of “childhood”. Presenting on “The Humanitarian Implications of Chinese Childhood History”, Prof Hsiung shared her insightful views on the concepts of humanistic concern in child health in the early-modern time.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited to give a keynote speech at “全國公私立醫學校院－醫學系學制改革與課程規劃研討會” on “The Convergence of Parted Paths.” Prof. Hsiung shares her own experience on Medical Humanities with the representatives of the medical colleges in Taiwan universities and uses it as an example to explain how we could cross the border of arts and sciences.

Sharing the same goal of achieving research and education advancement in health and humanities, our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the College of Medicine of the National Cheng Kung University to meet the delegates from the 12 medical schools in Taiwan in May. During the symposium and the roundtable discussion, Prof Hsiung shared her views and expertise with the delegates on the planning of the new medical curricula in Taiwan. Inspired by the intellectual exchange, it is believed that both NCKU and CUHK could work towards a comprehensive medical curriculum that highlights cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary integration.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the Medical College at National Cheng Kung University to give a lecture on “驚知己於千古.” In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung shares her own research result on the formation and development of traditional Chinese pediatrics with the medical students in NCKU.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the University of Oregon to give the concluding address at the University of Oregon Asian Studies Program 70th Anniversary Conference on “Is China the “Area” or the “Global Context”? Perspective from Hong Kong and Taiwan.” Responding to the presentation of Prof. Prasenjit Duara’s keynote speech, Prof. Hsiung expounds the future development of Asia and Area Studies by sharing her experience in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Given the fact that it is of increasing importance to adopt a comparative perspective to reveal the interconnectedness of world history and humanities in the study of History, RIH sponsored the Centre for the Comparative Study of Antiquity to organize the “Conference on Women, Law and Belief in Ancient and Medieval China” in May. The conference explored the issue of women’s role and status in the area of law and belief in early and Medieval China. It was well received among postgraduate students and young faculties in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan, especially those who were interested in conducting research in the area of ancient history with a comparative perspective.

Our Director, Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, was invited by the Simpson Center for the Humanities and the Department of History at the University of Washington, Seattle to give a lecture on “The Power of Voiceless: Further Thoughts on the Studies of Chinese Childhood History.” In this lecture, Prof. Hsiung reviews the current studies on Chinese Childhood History and shares her own research experience on “cricket” as related to Chinese Childhood History.

A visit to the States was arranged in April and May to consolidate the connection of CUHK with renowned universities and humanities institutions there. During the trip, our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, paid a visit to the Asia Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), our MOU signing partner, to substantiate collaborating projects and programs. She also met with scholars from the California Institute of Technology, Hsi Lai Temple, the University of the West and the University California, San Diego (UCSD) to establish academic network and initiate possible research collaboration in humanities subjects.

Prof Hsiung ended her trip to the States by giving a lecture titled “The Power of the Voiceless: Further Thoughts on the Studies of Chinese Childhood History” in the Chinese Department and Simpson Center for the Humanities at The University of Washington. She also presented a paper titled “Is China the ‘Area’ or the ‘Global Context’? Perspectives from Hong Kong and Taiwan” at the 70th Anniversary Conference of the University of Oregon Asian Studies Program titled “Area Studies in Global Context: The “Place” of Asia” for intellectual exchange.

Echoing to the arousing public concern in the environmental protection issue, RIH jointly organized the “Film and Environment Symposium” with the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability (IEES) in April. Prof David Chen Yong-qin, Chairman of the Department of Geography and Resource Management, Prof Liao Hsien-hao, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Taiwan University, Prof Michelle Bloom, Director of Comparative Literature, University of California, Riverside and Prof Lin Wen-chi, Department of English, National Central University were invited to speak at the symposium to explore the interaction between human and the natural world from the geographical and cultural perspectives. Uncovering the issue from an inter-disciplinary viewpoint, the symposium offered a critical analysis to the changing relation of people to the natural environment over the past few decades.

Under the collaboration of CUHK and the National Central University, Taiwan, the bilateral research centres of Taiwan Research Centre and Hong Kong Research Centre were established on 11 and 23 April 2012 respective. The newly founded Taiwan Research Centre strives to further the bondage of CUHK with Taiwan universities, and foster bilateral arts and humanistic studies. The centre would utilize the strength of CUHK to co-ordinate interdisciplinary research on Taiwan, while collaborate with the Hong Kong Research Centre at the National Central University and other academic institutions in Taiwan for academic exchange. Ongoing research topics include HK- Taiwan literature, history, philosophy, cultural and film studies. The centre will also explore and develop broader bilateral studies such as cultural management, cultural heritage conservation, urban regeneration, cultural development policy and cultural creative industries. The forerunner of the Centre’s vivacious academic events includes ‘Taiwan Film and Culture Symposium’ held on 11 April, with Prof Michelle Bloom from the University of California, Riverside, Prof Liao Hsien-hao from the National Taiwan University, and Prof Lin Wen-chi from the National Central University as the speakers.

Aimed at seeking the possibility of collaboration with the Brown University in the field of humanities and social sciences, and introducing American Studies to CUHK students, Prof Robert Lee from the Brown University was invited to visit our University in end-March. Not only having visited the History Department and SHH College of CUHK, Prof Lee had also provided valuable advices and information to the faculties of CUHK, and shared his precious experience with prospective students who were interested in furthering their academic career in American Studies. Planned to develop a summer program in Chinese-American history under the CUHK-Brown scheme, Lee will be returning with a visiting fellowship next year, and working with S. H. Ho and RIH, hosting on a Fulbright fellowship.

In mid-March, Prof Michael Steinberg from the Brown University was invited to launch a lecture titled “Provincializing European Opera” at our University. The lecture examined a selected series of celebrated European operas in their respective significance in historical, cultural and political evolution. Prof Steinberg’s galvanizing inter-disciplinary study of the western opera was delivered with the wish to illuminate the study of Chinese opera at our University. The event also featured Kunqu performances which initiated a cultural exchange of the art of the West and the East at CUHK, with the interest to develop possibly a summer program in comparative operatic musicology, with potential support from the CCK Foundation.

As the Vice- President of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the Research Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy of the Academic Sinica, Prof Wang Ayling was invited to conduct a lecture at our University on “Mission and Vision: The Role of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation in an Age of Globalization” and “”Canonicity” and “Modernity”: New Horizons for the Development of the Contemporary Taiwan Beijing Opera and Its Cultural Significance (「經典性」與「現代性」──論當代臺灣京劇發展之美學新視野與其文化意涵)” in March. The lecture received positive feedback from our audience, especially the MA in Cultural Management students. The Institute had benefited from Prof Wang not only her insightful view on tradition Chinese opera, but also her expertise in literature critique and theory.

Specializing in literature critique and aesthetics, Prof Tai Ching-hsien from the National Sun Yat-Sen University gave a lecture on 「劉勰《文心雕龍》之文學本質論及其玄學基礎」 “Liu Xie’s Aesthetics of Literature and Its Philosophical Foundation” at our University in March. Our faculty members and students had benefited enormously from his scholarship and academic insights on Chinese literature. At the same time, academic exchange between the National Sun-Yat Sen University and CUHK had been facilitated.

To nurture the study of Humanist Humanities and Buddhism at CUHK, Prof Yu Chun-fang from the Columbia University was invited to give two talks, namely “A Study of Contemporary Buddhist Nuns in Taiwan” and “觀音信仰與漢傳佛教” in March. Prof Yu is a famed scholar in the history of Chinese Buddhist thoughts and institutions, as well as Buddhists rituals and practice. Her preeminent methodology in the study of contemporary religious practice had undoubtedly invigorated the study of culture and religion of our fellow scholars.

Jointly invited by the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language, the English Language Teaching Unit and RIH, Prof Maria Zlateva, a scholar from the Boston University, conducted a lecture titled “Teaching Grammar in Context: The Case for Pedagogical Grammars” in March. The lecture discussed the role of Pedagogical Grammar (PG) in language teaching in various academic settings, using the experiences of an applied linguist, L2 language teacher, teacher educator, and program administrator. Definitions and conceptualizations of PG were reviewed in order to demystify the still evolving notion of PG and to establish a working base that encompassed content, pedagogy, and learning perspectives. Fresh orientations to the system of grammar (such as Functional Grammar, Action Grammar, Relevance Theory) were presented to show how applied linguistics research could inform grammar teaching to develop an account of language that reflected the way people actually learn and use it. This led to the rationale for teaching grammar in context, using a task-based approach which aimed to cultivate linguistic accuracy along with meaningful and appropriate use of grammar structures. The presentation provided examples of classroom practices and ended with a summary of implications for curricular design, teacher training, and further research.

To strength the academic network of CUHK with universities in UK in the study of Humanities, Prof Rosemary O’Day from the Open University, UK was invited to conduct a lecture titled “Matchmaking and Moneymaking in a Patronage Society” at our University in February. In the lecture, Prof O’Day demonstrated her caliber in investigating the intriguing relationship between marriage and money making in Gregorian England, which enacted a paragon not only for CUHK, but also Humanities research in domestic and social history.

Apart from the lecture on “Marriage, Family and Sexuality in the Age of Augustus”, Prof Robert Gurval, a scholar of antiquity from the University of California UCLA, was invited to lead a symposium titled “Famous Women in History” at the University in late February. The symposium also featured two renowned professors in CUHK, Prof Poo Mu-Chou and Prof Lee Ou-fan. Together with Prof Gurval, the three embarked an exciting and comparative intellectual discussion on the famous women in the antiquity, encompassing Hatshepsut from Egypt, Agrippina from Rome and Cixi from China, exerting new vigor in the traditional historical studies which had been dominated by men in power and mono-perspective narration.

With the aims to promote interest and encourage students to engage in more serious studies of Western Classical culture, RIH sponsored the Center for the Comparative Study of Antiquity to invite Prof Robert Gurval, an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of California (UCLA), to lead a lecture titled “Marriage, Family and Sexuality in the Age of Augustus” at the University. The lecture not only shed light on the study of Antiquity from the gender perspective, but also facilitated academic exchange between UCLA and CUHK.

To further strengthen the network with Taiwan universities in the study of Humanities, our Director, Prof Hsiung Ping-chen, visited the Nation Taiwan University, the National Central University, the Minister of Education of Taiwan, the CCK Foundation, the Academia Sinica, the CUHK Alumni Association of Taiwan, as well as the National Science Council during her academic trips to Taiwan in February and March 2012. The trips also served the purpose of exploring new collaboration opportunities between Taiwan academy and CUHK.

To arouse students’ interest and encourage their engagement in the study of Archaeology, Prof Lather von Faulkenhausen, Associate Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA was invited to visit our University in January. Serving as the UCLA’s representative for the International Archaeological Field School at Yangguanzhai (Shaanxi), the research of Prof Faulkenhausen concerns the archaeology of Bronze Age China. During his stay at our University, Prof Faulkenhausen not only had a sharing session with our postgraduate students, but also led a field trip at Wong Tei Tung for our Archaeology students for academic exchange.