NEWS AND EVENTS

What's On

Past Events

What's On

27 January 2027

The Evidence of the Small: Digital Historical Forensics in Wartime Chinese Visual Culture

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 27 January 2027 (Wed)
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Place: Digital Scholarship Lab, LG/F., University Library, CUHK (In-person event)

Speaker: Prof. DU Lin
Assistant Professor, Presidential Young Scholar
Department of Chinese History and Culture
Division of Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Click here to register!

About the talk:

What can a reused photograph tell us about political persuasion? And what can a blurry exhibition photograph reveal about a display that no longer exists? This lecture introduces digital historical forensics, an approach that brings computer vision into conversation with close visual reading and archival research. Drawing on wartime Chinese pictorials and photographic exhibitions, I examine two related problems. First, tracing photographs across issues of the Jinchaji Pictorial reveals how cropping, recaptioning, and republication transformed their historical meanings. Second, identifying tiny photographs within surviving exhibition views helps reconstruct lost displays and the narratives they conveyed. In both cases, computational methods search large, fragmented collections not simply to detect patterns, but to recover small differences and overlooked connections. The broader question is how machine-assisted discoveries become historical evidence, and what interpretive work remains for the historian.

About the speaker:

Lin Du is Assistant Professor and Presidential Young Scholar jointly appointed in the Department of Chinese History and Culture and the Division of Artificial Intelligence and the Humanities at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research brings together visual and media history, digital humanities, and computational methods, with a particular interest in how computer vision can recover connections among historical images and reconstruct their changing contexts of circulation and interpretation. Her work has appeared in the ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage and the Journal of Chinese Cinemas. Before joining PolyU, she was Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. She received her PhD from UCLA.

4 November 2026

From the Individual to the Dividual: In Search of the Real Self in Contemporary Japanese Literature

Speaker: Angela Yiu (Professor, Sophia University)

Date: Nov. 4, 2026 (Wed)
Time: 3:30–5:00 pm (Tea reception to follow the lecture.)
Place: Arts & Humanities Hub (G/F, Fung King Hey Building), CUHK

Registration Link (please register by 25 October)

All are welcome!

Abstract:

As Japan enters the era of Generative AI, intelligence unattached to a physical body is fast becoming a norm rather than an exception. A plurality of existence—avatars, handler names, personae—populates physical and cyber space. What is existence without a body? What does it mean to exist with an installed identity? How do we define who we are if our memories are erased or altered? What does it mean when multiple selves (“dividualism”) replace a single subjectivity or individualism? These are some questions that contemporary writers explore in their works. This talk will begin with a brief introduction to a selection of contemporary writers—Wataya Risa, Murata Sayaka, Yū Miri, Ogawa

Yōko—and focus on Hirano Kei’ichirō who created the neologism bunjin 分人 (dividual) to define the multiple selves in a person as opposed to a single and stable subjectivity in an individual. His works—A Man, The Real You, and Fill in the Empty Space—both philosophically profound and accessible to a general readership, continue to ask the questions “Who am I?” and “Where is the real self?” in full awareness of a divisible and multitudinous self.

About the speaker:

Angela Yiu, a native of Hong Kong, received her B.A. in Comparative Literature and Asian Studies from Cornell University and M.A. and Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literature from Yale University. She is Professor of Modern Japanese Literature in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. She served as Vice President of Academic Exchange (2011–2014) and Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts (2021–2025). Recent publications include Literature in Heisei Japan, 1989-2019 (2024) and Engagements with Modern Japanese Literature (2026).

For enquiries, please contact: Ms. Misaki Nagaoka mnagaoka@cuhk.edu.hk

4 November 2026

Perspectives on AI & Humanities from Young Researchers

An AI Sharing Luncheon Exclusively for Faculty of Arts RPg Students

Are you curious about how AI can support your research? Whether you are already using AI and computational tools in your work, exploring new possibilities, or simply trying to make sense of the rapidly evolving AI landscape, this event is for you.

Join us for an informal sharing luncheon and hear from three young researchers who have been experimenting with AI in their own research. The session will also provide an opportunity to exchange ideas, ask questions, and connect with fellow RPg students interested in AI and the humanities.

Perspectives on AI & Humanities from Young Researchers

Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2026
Time: 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm
Venue: LG, KKL (Leung Kau Kui Building)
Lunch will be provided. Pre-registration is required.
Registration Deadline: 26 October 2026

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13744769

Topics & Speakers:

Learning New Languages Mar Lorence Ticao (Ph.D. Year 1)

As a historian, I first turned to AI when I needed to process research data for my MPhil thesis but lacked the programming skills to do so efficiently. What started as a practical solution gradually became an ongoing learning experience. AI has helped me explore new “languages,” from Python, HTML, and JavaScript to Mandarin and Spanish, while also supporting website development, research workflows, and idea generation. Along the way, AI has become more than a tool for finding answers. It has also become a learning companion, helping me experiment with unfamiliar tools, develop new skills, and approach problems differently. In this sharing, I’ll reflect on how these experiences have encouraged me to pursue ideas I might not otherwise have explored.

AI as a Research Collaborator? Experiments and Reflections Dr. Yitian Ellie LI (Postdoc. Fellow)

I will share my experience of using AI for historical research in three scenarios: extracting structured information from historical texts, constructing persona agents to model an author’s rhetorical voice, and deploying coding agents to implement data analysis pipelines. Drawing on these examples, I will reflect on the verifiability of AI-generated results and the extent to which we are willing to delegate interpretive decisions to AI.

From Research Assistant to Virtual Ancestor: 3 Applications of AI in Humanities Dr. Ying Zoey Zhong (Postdoc. Fellow)

In recent decades, natural language processing (NLP) has proved valuable for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, with applications ranging from intertextuality studies to topic modelling and sentiment analysis. Recent advances in AI, especially large language models (LLMs), extend these capabilities considerably. This section discusses three ways AI can be built into the research workflow. 1) Research assistant. AI agents can take over much of the groundwork of research. They can locate and collect data, write code, and develop websites, which is very helpful in day-to-day work. 2) Annotator. Guided by theory-driven coding schemes from the social sciences and humanities, LLMs can identify and annotate the targeted factors in texts and generate structured data, which cannot be done using traditional NLP methods (such as annotating the structure of theory of mind in narrative texts). LLM annotation performs about as reliably as trained human coders, and on some tasks it is more consistent. 3) Historical LLM. Historical LLMs are trained exclusively on texts from a given historical period. They can serve as populations of “virtual ancestors.”

4 & 5 November 2026

Weirding AI workshop and performance by Halim Madi

A RIH Interdisciplinary Initiative ” Evaluating Generative AI across Disciplines” event

by Halim Madi

A Lebanese-American poet and software-leaning performer. Halim trains machines and performs with them on stage. His artistic practice explores computer theater, machine poetry, language revitalization.

01 Workshop
Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2026
Time: 3:30 -5:30 PM
Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F, University Library, CUHK
Quota: 30 seats

Weirding ai: the model as medium
most of us meet ai as a tool this hands-on session treats the language model as a medium, and works it the way we could a canvas, its weights, its innards and its texture become the work itself.

*No Coding Needed* Bring a Laptop*

02 Performance
Date: Thursday, 5 November 2026
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F University Library

How to make a baby
a twenty-minute work of computer theater. new beirut, 2036: the city is shrinking and proposition 42 would tax the childless, a podcast host, a nun, an influencer, a ceo and a drag performer have their say, all played by one performer. the room gives an eye, a breath and five words. by the end, it has made a child.

*20 Minutes + Conversation * Bring a Phone*

18 Sep. - 18 Dec. 2026

Workshop Series on Frontiers in Linguistics organised by Tsinghua University & UKCHA

Professor Ian Roberts is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge and a Professorial Fellow at the Downing College. He serves as the Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tsinghua University. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Member of the Academia Europaea, a member of the Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy, and an Honorary Member of the Linguistics Society of America.

1 Sep 2026 - 31 Aug 2031

Cross Cultural Analytics: Using Big Data, Large Language Models, Knowledge Graphs and Rare Books to Chart the Influence of Chinese Culture in the West, 1550–1800

Cross‑Cultural Analytics: Using Big Data, Large Language Models, Knowledge Graphs and Rare Books to Chart the Influence of Chinese Culture in the West, 1550–1800, is a CRF(YCRG) awarded project (2025/2026).

This project aims to establish Hong Kong as a leading global centre for Cross-Cultural Analytics, an emerging field at the intersection of data science and cultural studies. Focusing on the influence of Chinese culture on Europe and the Americas between 1550 and 1800, the project will apply large-scale data analysis to historical texts and translations using advanced Natural Language Processing techniques, including Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs. Leveraging CUHK’s exceptional rare book collections alongside major public-domain resources, the team will develop a high-quality textual corpus for intertextual analysis. In the long term, the project envisions the establishment of a permanent Cross-Cultural Analytics research centre at CUHK to advance international collaboration and postgraduate training.

Principal Investigator
Prof. Stuart M. McManus (HIS)

Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. ZONG Ying, Zoey, Postdoctoral Fellow (HIS)

Dr. LI Yitian, Postdoctoral Fellow (HIS)

CUHK Members

Prof. CHEUNG, Jack Hiu Yu (HIS)
Prof. CHEUNG, Lawrence Yam‑leung (LIN)
Prof. HWANG, Haerim (ENG)
Dr. JI, Lingjie (TRA)
Prof. PAN, Sinno Jialin (CSE)
Prof. PUK Wing Kin (HIS)
Prof. WEI, Ling Chia Sophie (TRA)

External Members

Prof. STURGEON, Donald (Durham University)
TANGHERLINI, Timothy R. (University of California, Berkeley)

Planned Activities in the First Five Years

2026-onwards – Conferences, Panels and Digital Humanities Initiatives

2028 – International Conference

2029 – Public Exhibition

Please stay tuned!

1 Sep 2026 - 31 Aug 2027

Counterpoint: Reading the Understudied

Counterpoint: Reading the Understudied

Counterpoint is an interdisciplinary reading group exploring overlooked histories, languages, environments, technologies, communities, and forms of knowledge, with a particular interest in Global South perspectives. The group itself reflects this interest, with members from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds who bring their own experiences and perspectives to the discussion. Rather than seeking to replace dominant narratives, Counterpoint considers how other voices, experiences, and ideas may enrich, complicate, or reframe familiar understandings. Through scholarly works, fiction, poetry, discussions, and exchanges on members’ own research, the group creates a space to reflect on how knowledge is produced, represented, circulated, and contested.

Activities

regular reading discussions
research roundtables and peer exchange
guest conversations and shared projects
conversations over meals

What we explore

language & memory
environment & infrastructure
material life & technology
migration & belonging
decolonial thought

Coordinator

Mar Lorence Ticao (Department of History)

Connect

Website: https://counterpointcuhk.org/
Email: recode.cuhk@gmail.com
Newsletter: recodecuhk.substack.com
Instagram: @recode.cuhk

We invite students and researchers interested in these topics to join the conversation.

Activities:

2 Oct 2026 Seeking Out Vanishing Tongues: Culture, Cognition & Endangered Poetry

1 November 2026

FAQ: CUHK Humanities Collegium

How do I suggest a speaker?

Use our speaker nomination form, and fill in as much information as you can. This form goes directly to our speaker selection team.

Can I suggest someone I don’t know personally? You ask for their email address, and I don’t know it.

Please do! Just let us know how you’ve heard about this person, and why you think they should speak at the Collegium.

Will it help if I submit multiple nominations, or have my colleagues nominated the same speaker several times?

No. It really only takes one suggestion.

Is there a deadline for suggesting a speaker?

We accept nominations on a year-round basis. We encourage you to submit your suggestions at the earliest opportunity, as this allows us sufficient time to conduct thorough evaluations and make well-informed decisions regarding our speaker roster. We anticipate inviting one to two speakers per academic year, typically during the periods of October–November and/or March–April.

How long is a flagship public talk?

We expect the speaker to present on the designated topic for 60–75 minutes, followed by a 15–30 minute Q&A session.

What is a mentoring workshop about?

A mentoring workshop is a half-day interactive workshop on a specific theme. We anticipate that the maximum number of participants will be around 40.

What is a mentoring reception about?

A mentoring reception is a two-hour casual networking event.

What do you pay speakers?

RIH offers speakers an honorarium in recognition of the effort invested in their lecture, mentoring workshop, and participation in the reception. We also cover travel and accommodation expenses. We are committed to creating an experience that is mutually rewarding and beneficial for all parties involved.

31 July 2024

Archaeological Science in Hong Kong

A RIH-funded Interdisciplinary Research Project

This initiative facilitates dialogue and knowledge exchange on a wide range of topics related to the human past. Researchers can share the latest developments in their respective fields through themed technical workshops and focus group meetings. Ultimately, this initiative will help advance the study of the human past by strengthening the collaborative network to address research interests more effectively.

Hyperlink to the project website

Project team

Christina CHEUNG (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK)
Dr. Reijiro AOYAMA (Senior Lecturer, Department of Japanese Studies, CUHK)
Prof. David Michael BAKER (Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, HKU)
Mr. Alexander CHEUNG (Vice Chairman, Hong Kong Archaeological Society)
Ir. Dr. LAI Wai-Lok, Wallace (Associate Professor, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Prof. LAM Weng Cheong (Associate Professor, Department of History/Anthropology, CUHK)
Prof. PENG Peng (Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, CUHK)
Dr. TAM Pui Yuk Tammy (Senior Lecturer, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, CUHK)
Prof. Benoit THIBODEAU (Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, CUHK)
Prof. Wicky TSE Wai Kit (Associate Professor, Department of History, CUHK)
Dr. WONG Wai Kai (Lecturer, School of Biomedical Sciences, CUHK)
Ms. Julie VAN DEN BERGH (Director, Archaeological Assessments Ltd, HK)
Prof. Leilah VEVAINA (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK)
Prof. ZHANG Chaoxiong (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK)

Project objectives

• To promote intra- and inter- faculty collaborations in CUHK, presenting new opportunities to enhance the research portfolio and impact of the Faculty of Arts.
• To promote the fields of Archaeology and Archaeological Science in Hong Kong.
• To initiate the first focus workgroup on CUHK campus that bridges the Arts (Anthropology/History) with the Sciences (Life Sciences/Material Sciences).
• To connect researchers who share similar research interests in the human past but possess different relevant skills.
• To provide a supportive platform where larger transdisciplinary projects can emerge.

Project brief description

The field of archaeology has undergone tremendous change in recent years. Particularly, advances in scientific methods and an increasing institutional push for interdisciplinarity have enabled and encouraged archaeologists to explore new ways to reconstruct the past. These state-of-the-art technologies have revolutionised the way we learn about the past, opening up areas of human history previously inaccessible using conventional methods. We can now take our investigations to an entirely new level of detail and accuracy, from intimate details such as the eye and hair colour of someone who lived thousands of years ago , to global concerns such as past climatic events , . Recent research demonstrates the successful use of scientific methods in addressing social issues such as social stratification, gender dynamics, trading networks, and cultural changes in past societies , , . Moreover, in addition to learning about how our ancestors lived, archaeology also has direct and indirect relevance for current issues. For example, by looking at recovery patterns of past populations from various crises (e.g. climate change , epidemics , or wars and forced displacements ), we can provide valuable information to help inform decision making on how best to implement polices relating to emergencies in modern times. Furthermore, archaeological methods may also find utility in other related fields, including but not limited to forensic recovery of human remains , wildlife trafficking , and biodiversity studies . Therefore, there is both the need and urgency to continue developing archaeological sciences. Consistently ranked as one of the world’s best research institutes, CUHK would be the perfect host to lead such an innovative initiative in Asia.

Despite having proved to be immensely successful in many other countries, the implementation of scientific methods in archaeological research is still not routinely practiced in Hong Kong. Fortunately, researchers with related expertise and interests, as well as required equipment and analytical facilities can be found across universities in Hong Kong. Hence, this initiative intends to bring together a team of researchers and practitioners with shared interests in using or developing scientific methods in archaeology, providing an arena for us to share and exchange ideas, experiences, and findings. This first (to hopefully more) initative will focus on two themes, bioarchaeology (i.e. health, diet, and mobility) and material science (i.e. metal and ceramics).

Instead of all working on one project, this initiative will focus on building synergies between researchers across very different fields. In a round-table setting, researchers will engage in discussions and hands-on demonstrations, providing comments and insights on each other’s research projects based on their respective specialised backgrounds. The goal is to explore new interdisciplinary perspectives that can enhance all of our ongoing projects. We expect this effort will inspire, encourage, and guide all participants to design trans-disciplinary collaborative projects. Last but not least, while the current initiative only focuses on connecting researchers in Hong Kong, it is hoped that the success of this effort will serve as a springboard for larger collaborations with researchers beyond Hong Kong in the near future.

Left (from back to front): Prof Lam Weng Cheong (Dept of History/ Dept of Anthropology, CUHK), Ms. Yadian Wang (Mphill student, Department of Earth Sciences, HKU), Prof. Chris Cheung (Dept of Anth, CUHK), Prof. Leilah Vevaina (Dept, of Anth, CUHK), Ir. Dr. Wallace Lai (Dept. Of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, PolyU)

Right (front back to front): Dr. Reijiro Aoyama (Dept of Japanese Studies, CUHK), Prof. Wicky Tse (Dept of History, CUHK), Mr. Alexander Cheung (Registered professional archaeologist), Prof. Benoit Thibodeau (School of Life Sciences, CUHK), Dr. Michael Rivera (HKU)

(29 Jan. 2024, HKU) What can a skeleton tell us: a practical session with Dr. Michael Rivera was a collaboration between the CUHK Department of Anthropology and the School of Dentistry at HKU. 42 registrants from a wide range of backgrounds, including students, professors, and practitioners from Archaeology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Social Sciences, Engineering, and many more. Through hands-on learning, participants get to learn about human anatomy, pathology, taphonomy, and the importance of interdisciplinary research in the field of archaeology.

(4 & 8 Mar. 2024, CUHK) A two-day workshop titled “What You Eat: Applications of Biochemical Methods in Archaeology” attracted over 30 participants from various departments across HK, including students and scholars from Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Cultural and Religious Studies, Philosophy, Public Health, and more. After an introduction to the basic principles of the method, participants prepared their own hair for stable isotope analysis and learned to use the program R to plot their data. We then had an exciting discussion on the meaning of the data and how it can help us understand the food practices of a society. The generated data will also be used for a student’s FYP!

(2 Jun. 2024, HKU) Glass Artefacts and The Maritime Trade: Archeological Glass from South China Sea Coast and HK Collection
Dr. Kuan-Wen Wang from the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, to come and share her research on ancient glass with us. This event will take the form of a lecture and workshop and will take place on the 2nd of June (Sunday) from 14:00 – 16:30 at G/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU (Sai Ying Pun). More information.
Registration link: https://bit.ly/glassevent (Limited seats, priority is given on a “first-come, first-serve” basis)

(31 July 2024, CUHK) Exploration of Microscopic World of Artifacts: XRF & SEM-EDS
In this lecture cum workshop event, Prof. LAM Weng Cheong, CUHK (HIS, ANT) will show the participants the different analytical techniques archaeologists employ to understand the chemical compositions of (inorganic) artefacts.
Lecture: 2 – 3 pm @ NAH401, New Asia College
Workshop: 3:15 – 5pm @ 1/F Science Center North Block
FREE event, all are welcome. Limited seats, please register now! Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2474792

(21 & 28 Oct 2024, CUHK) Introduction to Archaeobotany: What plants can tell us about the past
The main event will be a lecture taking place on the 21st Oct (Monday), from 14:30 – 16:15 at UCC-C2, T. C. Cheng Building, United College, CUHK. We are very fortunate to have Prof. Jennifer Bates from Seoul National University to come and share her research on ancient plant remains with us. Participants can also opt to attend a hands-on session (21/10 17:30 – 18:15) and a follow up info session for the practical (28/10 14:30 – 16:15). As usual, the workshop is free and open for all to participate! Please register if you are interested to attend, and feel free to share

(1 Apr. 2025, CUHK) Living and Dying during Wars and Epidemics – New Bioanthropological Perspectives from Medieval Northern Italy
Dr. Elena Fiorin from Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy will give a talk on her research in Medieval Italy. This talk will combine archaeological and bioanthropological methods to examine how war and pandemics affected urban communities in the past. More information.
FREE event, all are welcome. Limited seats, please register now! Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=3300072%20.

(8 Oct. 2025, CUHK) Extended Reality in Archaeology
Prof. Peter J. Cobb, Prof. Lukas Z. Liu, Mr. Hayk Azizbekyan, and Ms. Wuyan Yao from the University of Hong Kong to give a talk and demonstration on the use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (MR) and mixed reality (MR) in archaeology. More information
FREE event, all are welcome. Limited seats, please register now! Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2212319

(19 Nov. 2025, CUHK) Quantitative Study of Chinese Ceramic Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 800-1900 AD (千年的陶瓷之路：中國陶瓷在西印度洋貿易的量化研究 )
Dr. Zhang Ran from Durham University, U.K. More information
FREE event, all are welcome. Limited seats, please register now! Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=3300072

(7 Mar. 2026, CityU) CITY IN TIME: Immersive Urban Heritage and Augmented Reality
Mr. Alan Leung and Ms. Yip Tsz Lam from the production team of “City in Time”

(11 Apr. 2026, CUHK) Advances in Digital Heritage Documentation across Contexts of Warfare, Destruction, and Change
Prof. Gaygysyz Jorayev (Macau University of Tourism) More information

Past Events

27 October 2026

How to Remember, Sonically? Affective Situated Listening in Two Digital Poetic Sound Works: Memory Loops (2008) and Audio.Space.Machine (2019)

Date: 27 October 2026 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:30–6:00 pm
Venue: LG04, Hui Yeung Shing Bldg., CUHK

Speaker: Prof. Holger Schulze
Professor, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies,
University of Copenhagen

Delivered in English | All are welcome | No pre-registration required | Limited seats, first come, first served

Co-hosted by RIH Interdisciplinary Reading Group “Weaving Narratives, Curating Stories: Engagements with Critical Heritage Studies”
Coordinated & Co-moderated by Lei Yusheng

About the talk:

Sound is ephemeral. Or so we think. Literature, on the other hand, can last forever. But can it? Do works of poetry really last that long? In their written form, certainly – but orally?
Sound has been archived and stored for about 160 years, and so has the sound of spoken words, political speeches, poetry readings. Can we imagine sound works that actually serve
as a kind of memorial? Is it possible to produce a digital artifact in sound to support national memory?

In this talk, I analyze and discuss the potential of two digital artworks that employ language, advanced sound production, as well as online distribution formats to relate to the memory of violent historical events as well as to an actually utopian cultural endeavor: Memory Loops (2008) by artist and performer Michaela Melián and Audio.Space.Machine – Ein Bauhaus-Konzeptalbum (2019) by author and actor Christian Wittmann and composer and performer Georg Zeitblom.

Both works stage archival sources, sonically as well as spatially; both were produced and presented within a context of national memory. They carry their historical contexts of production not only in the choice of material, but also in the digital technologies they use. Studying these two works and how their producers worked with and staged historical sources, allows to assess and maybe to answer the question of the title: how to remember, sonically?

About the speaker:

Holger Schulze is professor in musicology at the University of Copenhagen and principal investigator at the Sound Studies Lab. His sonic anthropology explores how sounds and listening in the 21st century stabilize, disrupt, and permeate everyday life. Artistic practices and everyday objects are both of equal concern to his sonic critique. As one of three editors-in-chief of The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Sound Studies, (along with Jennifer Stoever and Michael Bull) he fosters and disputes the pluriform artistic and scholarly research that emerged since he co-founded the world’s first master’s program in Sound Studies at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2006. His publications include: Meme Music (2026), Sonic Fiction (2020), The Sonic Persona (2018)

27 October 2026

Photo-Literary Practice: Poetry, Sites, Attention, and the Irreducible

A Research Workshop organised by the RIH’s RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group Practising Word/Work/Worlds: Intermedial creative practice, feminist-ecological philosophy, and situated methods

Supported by:

Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH), CUHK

Department of English, CUHK.

About the workshop

Roland Barthes reminds us that the photograph bears the trace of an encounter with the real. In Camera Lucida, his ça-a-été (“that-has-been”) names the photograph’s relation to something that was once there before the camera. In a contemporary image-world, where the “photographic” can become a style or an aesthetic surface quality to be extracted, this workshop poses a foundational question: what remains irreducible about photo-literary practice?

Recent photo-literary studies have moved beyond asking how photographs and texts interact towards asking what photo-texts can do: what political or ethical work they perform, and what relations, forms of attention, and knowledge they make possible. Research on photobiography and photographic life writing has also brought renewed attention to processes of making—how photographing and autobiographical writing develop together, from preparation to the production of phototextual works. The question is therefore no longer only how photo-texts represent or mediate memory, but how photographing and writing themselves become practices of memory, return, care, and historical relation.

Building on these developments, the workshop wants to explore four related questions:

Poetics and Temporality: What do poetic forms such as photopoetry and VR poetry open up for presence, memory, and time? How do rhythm, pause, fragmentation, and immersion alter our experience of images and environments?

Site and Response-ability: What becomes possible when photography and writing emerge from sustained engagement with a site—physical, institutional, or archival?

Attention and Care: When does sustained attention in photography and writing become more than observation—and, if so, a form of care?

The Irreducible: What in photo-literary practice cannot be reduced to generative output? What remains in the encounter, duration and lived experience through which a work comes into being?

About the Programme

The workshop brings these questions together through talks, creative work, and discussion, and will form the basis for a proposed special issue on photo-literary practice in the age of AI.

Programme

Registration:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/3S0wAT7x64?origin=lprLink

A light meal will be provided at 4:30 pm following the workshop for registered participants. Please indicate on the registration form if you plan to join.

Talk Abstracts and Speaker Bios

Fabien Arribert-Narce:

“Barthes, Photography and Haiku:

How to Express “Absolute” Presence Photobiographically?”

Abstract

In The Preparation of the Novel (1979), Roland Barthes claims about Japanese haiku poems that “there’s no interpretative relativity whatsoever: there’s nothing to be said about it. — Absolutely would be the haiku’s motto” (p. 79-80). This talk will examine the nature and status of the “absolute” mentioned here by Barthes, in relation to the haiku that he explored in depth since the publication of Empire of Signs in 1970, but also to other media he studied closely in the 1970s such as photography (e.g. in Camera Lucida, his last work published in 1980). Despite the careful attention he paid to the multiple layers of meaning and interpretation throughout his career, the French semiotician did not believe, of course, that everything is relative. He formulated in the later part of his life an aspiration for a form of absolute expression able to resist commentaries, interpretations and descriptions, at the intersection between image and text. His quest of the Absolute, encapsulating the trace of a unique, singular encounter with the world, led him to develop a meditation on time, memory and anamnesis, presence and absence, and thereby on life writing, in particular via the haiku and photography that he often compared as we will see by analysing the notion of the “undevelopable” – this is close to other neighbouring notions such as the “intractable”, and Walter Benjamin’s “aura”. This Barthesian idiosyncratic approach to the photo/text may be offering us a precious antidote to preserve authenticity in the age of AI produced images, as I will argue.

Bio

Fabien Arribert-Narce, Ph.D. (Kent/Paris 3), is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Edinburgh, where he is co-director of the MSc and PhD programmes in Intermediality studies. He is the author of Photobiographies (Champion, 2014) and Post-japonismes (Brill, 2026), and editor of several multi-author volumes.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Collier Nogues:

“Image, Archive, Poetry, and Technology:

Literary Making with VR and AI”

Abstract

In this practice-based research talk, Nogues will discuss two current practice-based research projects, reflecting on the ways digital tools enable creative writing encounters with visuality and archives. The first project, Feels Like Power, is a digital manuscript-in-progress that combines the medium of immersive VR with the methodology of documentary poetry. The project’s immersive panoramic poems are set in and around US military installations in the Pacific region, at sites in Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Guåhan (Guam), and explore the impact of the U.S. military presence by focusing on liminal and contested spaces including perimeter fence zones, war tourism sites, and groundwater drainage systems. The project also examines the ways domestic life overlaps with the war machine, allowing a view inside the domestic spaces that house and sustain the thousands of military family members leading suburban American lives on overseas bases. Ultimately, the poems leverage immersive VR’s affective power to bring archival materials from different contexts into contact with each other, allowing their resonances to emerge in multiple dimensions, and holding nature, capital, and postcolonial bodies in conversations that re-imagine our current world from crises towards possible actions.

The second project, the Grieving Machine, a bespoke, local LLM designed as an artist’s book. Materially, it is a small, portable box that sits on a desk and can be accessed with a touchscreen and keyboard. It is not connected to the cloud or backed up; it is, instead, a singular artwork, vulnerable to loss or damage the way singular artworks, and individual humans, are always vulnerable to their environments. The machine’s training data is a corpus of Nogues’s writing after the catastrophic flash flooding in central Texas (USA) on 4 July 2025. Human-caused climate change was likely a factor in the flooding, whose epicenter was her hometown, Hunt. 135 people died, and Hunt’s infrastructure, including its post office and only store, was erased. In the months that followed, Nogues lost, to other causes, three family members who lived in the area. In designing the Grieving Machine, she asks, how can a local LLM be trained to engage with human grief on multiple scales at once, from the intimate to the public and planetary? More pointedly, can a person put their grief into it? Can it then co-author poems that are worth reading? What can trying show us about the future of the book in the age of GenAI, or about the risks and appeal of AI grief aids, or about our responsibilities to each other and our environment in the face of the competitive, meteoric development of commercial LLMs?

Bio

Collier Nogues is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She writes at the intersection of digital and documentary poetics. Her poetry collections include the hybrid print/interactive volume The Ground I Stand On Is Not My Ground (Drunken Boat, 2015) and On the Other Side, Blue (Four Way, 2011). She is a lead collaborator in DOKYU, which gathers artists, writers, and historians to explore transdisciplinary approaches to archives.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Eddie Tay:

“The Observations of the Interior Monologuist”

Abstract

“The observations of the interior monologuist, like the images of the street photographer, have no debts to finality, can be made of pure contingency, are the point of intersection of the street’s temporalities and the inner time of the monologuist/photographer.” (Clive Scott, Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson). This paper celebrates the contingency of the creative process. Through poems and street photographs, it looks at the practice of creative writing and street photography via Walter Benjamin’s essay on mechanical reproduction, Heidegger’s notion of the work of art as a form of unveiling, and Max van Manen’s notion of applied phenomenology. It also looks at Han Byung-chul’s treatment of vita contemplativa as part of the exploration of the creative process as an attentional mode of being.

Bio

Eddie Tay teaches creative writing courses at the Department of English, CUHK. His works of autoethnography, Anything You Can Get Away With: Creative Practices (2018), Hong Kong as Creative Practice (2023) and Creative Practice as a Way of Life: After Barthes (2024) often blend scholarly language with street photography and poetry.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Joachim Yunqian Yang:

“The Past Is a Foreign City:

Your Year in London and My Year in Making Your Dossier”

Abstract

How can one exorcise the influence of a foreign city when the year spent there proves too discontinuous to make sense to oneself? My project adopts the dossier as a photo-literary form, activating materials from postgraduate life in London to stage an experiment in dédoublement: giving the past self a sensible form through which to know him anew.

Following Chris Marker’s advice, il faudrait se tutoyer toute sa vie, the book divides the autobiographical subject into a writing ‘I’ and an absent ‘you’ who exists only through a digital archive. Recalling Barthes’s account of Proust’s author-narrator indecision, ‘I’ constructs, rather than remembers or confesses, a self unknown before writing. The book alternates between second-person narration, in which past experiences are loosened through free indirect discourse, and more playful episodes. From YouTube script to automatic writing and shopping lists, they use stylistic experiment to invent possibilities of being that actual life denied. ‘Heterofiction’ names this interweaving of autobiography and fiction, self-expression and self-estrangement.

With organic memory deliberately bracketed, external memory supplies narrative resources and models the book’s format. Among its heterogenous materials, the dossier stages image and text as doubled tracks joined by reciprocal anchoring. Immersed in the photographic archive and images retrieved online, the narrator seeks to understand the absent addressee and bring their separate moments into coappearance. The digital condition makes the past available for re-creation without necessarily annulling the force of original events. Life writing becomes less recovery of presence than presentification: the writer encounters, with surprise, a self he nonetheless recognises.

Bio

Joachim Yunqian Yang is a PhD student in English literary studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written on modernist and contemporary fiction, Chris Marker, and surrealism. His current research focuses on the concept of the image and seeks to develop an image-theoretical approach to literary criticism. He also works in photography and graphic design and has made several photobooks.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Aqua Kaiyun Zheng:

“Living with Photographic Ruins:

Photopoetry as a Practice of Return”

Abstract
What happens when we can make a photograph but cannot return to it? This talk begins with photographs I took around my grandmother’s death in 2019 but could not look at again for seven years. I describe this condition as living with photographic ruins: carrying images that remain materially intact while the relations they preserve cannot be readily entered. Through three practices of photopoetic writing—tracing an unphotographed shimmer, stitching dispersed familial traces across frames, and re-entering shifting familial positions through repeated act of holding—I return to relations that had remained absent, dispersed, or unreadable within and around the photographs. From these returns, I develop attendability as a belated relational capacity to remain with and respond to what photographs preserve without making it fully available. I argue that photopoetry’s potential as a form of life writing lies not in repairing an earlier form of attention, but in changing the conditions of “living with”: making it possible to stay with photographic ruins “for a while”, leave, and return again.

Bio
Aqua Kaiyun Zheng is a PhD candidate in English Literary Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and was a visiting researcher with the Intermediality Research Strand at the University of Edinburgh. Working across photo-literary studies and life writing, her practice-based research uses autoethnography to examine how lived experience is worked through in the making of photo-texts. Her particular focus is on self-collaborative photopoetry: how photographing and poetic writing continually reopen and redirect one another, and what forms of situated knowledge emerge through this reciprocal process of field encounter, remembering, juxtaposing, sequencing, and return. Her current project, Photopoetry as Method, develops this approach through work on the Hong Kong–Shenzhen border, motherhood, and family memory.

Coordinator

Aqua Kaiyun Zheng, Department of English, CUHK

(Special thanks to Joachim for his feedback and suggestions.)

21 October 2026

A Mosque by Any Other Name: (Un-)Official Islamic Places of Worship in Hong Kong

A RIH Interdisciplinary Initiative, South Asia from Asia‘s event

Date: 21 October 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 12:00 noon – 1:45 pm
Venue: NAH 401 Humanities Building, CUHK
(Light lunch will be provided)
Please scan the poster’s QR code to register.

Speaker: WONG Siu Miu, Michelle

About the talk

This talk offers a comprehensive and critical account of Hong Kong’s Muslim communities, focusing on the local Islamic landscape in the post-1997 period.

Owing to Hong Kong’s land-scarce, non-Muslim-majority environment, Islamic places of worship established after 1997 have had to adapt to unconventional settings, including Modular Integrated Construction structures, residential and commercial flats, multipurpose rooms with secular institutions, open public spaces, and community centres. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, the study traces how their proliferation reflects demographic diversification, sectarian plurality, and the growing influence of Pakistani-run Islamic organisations operating independently of the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong.

As Hong Kong approaches the conclusion of “One Country, two Systems.” the talk briefly situates these developments alongside the PRC’s religious policy frameworks, opening a broader discussion on the possible implications for religious communities going forward.

20 Oct 2026

History+AI: The Promise and Peril of LLMs to Historical Research

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 20 October 2026 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Florin-Stefan Morar
Assistant Professor of History, and History+AI Lab, Director, National University of Singapore (NUS)

Click here to register.

Abstract:

What can large language models add to historical research, and what might they obscure? I approach this question through three projects: Science and Emotions, The Pulse of History, and CROSS. Together, they offer a way to examine how AI enters the historian’s work, from navigating large collections to forming and testing interpretations. I will consider the possibilities these tools open, as well as their tendency to smooth over uncertainty, reproduce gaps in archives, and offer persuasive answers without adequate evidence. The talk asks how historians can put LLMs to work while keeping their outputs open to scrutiny and their claims grounded in sources.

Bio:

Florin-Stefan Morar is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the History+AI Lab at the National University of Singapore. His research brings together global history, the history of science and technology, and computational methods. He is the author of Connected Cartographies: World Geography and the Sino-Western Translation of Knowledge, 1580–1842 (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

15 October 2026

A Violent Display: Tracing the Origins of an Unidentified Man in a Museum

A public talk for the RIH Interdisciplinary Collaborative Initiatives: Archaeological Science in Hong Kong.

Speaker: Prof. Chris Stantis (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)
Date: Thursday, 15 October 2026
Time: 16:30–18:00
Venue: UCA111, Tsang Shiu Tim Building (United College), Chinese University of Hong Kong
Language: English

About the talk:

Natural history museums serve as microcosms of environments and natural diversity, but are they also microcosms of wider systemic injustice? In July 2020, the diorama titled Lion Attacking Dromedary was removed from public view at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the United States. This tableau depicting a North African courier on a dromedary struggling for his life surrounded by lions contains not only taxidermied animals but a human skull. The taxidermy studio was known for their dedication to ecological ‘authenticity’, with the lions and camel both from North Africa. But what is the story of the man who was seemingly stolen from his burial place to become part of this museum display?

Working to ‘flesh in’ the man in Carnegie’s diorama, synthesizing archival research and chemistry (stable isotopes) to provide clues to his origin and identity. This study presents stable isotope analyses of his teeth. We may never know exactly where he was stolen from, but the isotopic evidence provides clues that may inform future quests for returning him home.

About the speaker:
Prof. Chris Stantis is a biological anthropologist with training in archaeology, anatomy, and chemistry, Prof. Stantis focuses on analyzing bones and teeth to place people in their past environment. For archaeological work, her research focuses on methods and types of questions rather than a specific region, culture, or time period. In forensic anthropology, she focuses on methods improvement surrounding stable isotopes chemistry.

Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

5 October 2026

How to write your Dissertation and make it easier to publish

From Dissertation to Publication

We are honored to welcome Prof. Don Kulick as the inaugural speaker of the RIH Postgraduate Career Development Talk Series 2026-2027.

Prof. Kulick is a linguistic anthropologist, Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at Uppsala University, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the School of English at The University of Hong Kong (HKU).

In this talk, Prof. Kulick will share his insights and practical advice on dissertation writing and discuss how to develop a dissertation into a publishable work.

How to Write Your Dissertation and Make It Easier to Publish

Date: Monday, 5 October 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM
Venue: LG06, KKL (LG/F, Leung Kau Kui Building)

Limited seats available. Register now:
https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13740732

2 October 2026

Seeking Out Vanishing Tongues: Culture, Cognition & Endangered Poetry

What do we miss when understudied and endangered languages are left out of the conversation?

For the first session of Counterpoint: Reading the Understudied, we will explore the world’s understudied and endangered languages and the cultural and intellectual worlds they carry.

Drawing on endangered poetry collections, including Chris McCabe’s Poems from the Edge of Extinction, and research in linguistics, the discussion will consider what can be lost when languages disappear: distinct poetic traditions, writing systems, literary forms, and ways of articulating human experience.

We will also look at what linguistic diversity can tell us about child language acquisition and human cognition, and discuss some of the challenges and trade-offs involved in researching and documenting languages under threat.

Discussion facilitated by Carleon Mendoza (Department of Linguistics)

Date: Friday, 2 October 2026
Time: 12:30–1:45 pm
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK University Library
Registration: Please register by 1 October using the QR code on the poster.

We invite students and researchers interested in the question to join the conversation.

Connect

Mar Lorence Ticao (Department of History)
Website: https://counterpointcuhk.org/
Email: recode.cuhk@gmail.com
Newsletter: recodecuhk.substack.com
Instagram: @recode.cuhk

24 - 28 August 2026

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship 2026

Digital Humanities Initiative

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship
24 – 28 August 2026

Eligibility:

CUHK Faculty of Arts Undergraduate (2nd Year or above) / Research Postgraduate (RPg) Students
Must have attended one Digital Scholarship and Research Data Workshop organised by the University Library OR completed one digital humanities course offered by the Faculty of Arts

This scholarship will provide travel support (registration, flights and accommodation) to the awardee to attend the Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School 2026. The selection process will require students to propose a digital humanities project for completion upon their return.

The available workshop strands in 2026 are:

Introduction to Digital Humanities
Introduction to TEI
Applied Data Analysis
From Text to Tech

Application Deadline: 28 March 2026

Apply now online

Read blog posts written by the 2025 Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship awardees.

For enquiries, please send email to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk or call RIH General Office T: 3943 4786

24 - 28 August 2026

More Than Markup: Texts, Languages, and New Research Directions at Oxford

Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) at DHOxSS 2026
Hussein Abdelbadea Hussein Hassan
PhD in Religious Studies, Year 3

I attended the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) strand at the Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School. I arrived with a practical problem: building a manageable multilingual corpus for my doctoral research on reciprocity in Jewish and Islamic texts. I had already gathered materials but needed a clearer and more sustainable structure.

The lectures, practical exercises, and individual discussions changed how I think about encoding. I learned that marking up quotations is only the beginning. More consequential decisions concern what counts as a textual unit, how identifiers are assigned, and how translations relate to their sources. Working with the TEI Guidelines, XPath, and schema customisation gave me a way to test a small corpus before expanding it. The instructors welcomed questions and engaged directly with my project. Several also offered continued support.

Outside the classroom, I discussed Judeo-Italian texts with another participant, compared Arabic and Spanish words over dinner, and explained the Hebrew origin and meaning of a colleague’s name. I finally visited the Weston Library, which I had long wanted to see. Even the morning porridge reminded me of belila, a popular Egyptian dish.

I am grateful to the Research Institute for the Humanities at CUHK for making the week possible. I returned with new international connections and a realistic plan for the next stage of the project.

24 - 28 August 2026

Seeing Data Differently: My Oxford Summer School Experience

Tina Cheung Man Yap, BA in History, Yr. 4

From statistical modeling to interactive data visualization, the one-week summer course at Oxford was an inspiring and transformative experience. Through intensive sessions on data analysis, I deepened my understanding of research methodologies, data-cleaning techniques, and the art of presenting complex findings through clear and compelling visualizations. The hands-on workshops not only strengthened my technical skills in tools such as Python and Tableau but also taught me how to critically evaluate data-driven arguments, a competency that will be invaluable in my future academic pursuits.

Beyond the curriculum, I was equally grateful for the opportunity to engage with peers and instructors from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Their insights broadened my perspective on how data science can be applied across a wide range of fields, from the social sciences to the humanities. I returned to Hong Kong with new technical skills, a stronger analytical mindset, and a clear plan for applying these techniques to my upcoming research projects.

I sincerely thank my school for the scholarship that made this journey possible. This summer course has been one of the highlights of my undergraduate studies, and I look forward to building on the knowledge and experiences gained through this remarkable opportunity.

9 June 2026

Call for Proposals – Interdisciplinary Initiatives

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

Each group should have three or more faculty members from at least two disciplines or programmes.
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 topic.
Each proposal should include plans for faculty seminars and/or small-scale workshops.
We encourage collaborations with scholars and practitioners outside the Faculty of Arts or beyond CUHK.

Coordinator of the Research Groups

Each group should have a Coordinator who is responsible for managing group activities.
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.
The Coordinator will also help manage the expenses of the group.

Support to Research Groups

The RIH will provide logistical assistance (such as scheduling a meeting/event space and making arrangements for visiting scholars) to the group.
Each group will receive up to HK$75,000 for a one-year project (2026/27) or HK$150,000 for a two-year project (2026/28) to cover the costs of organizing a wide variety of activities—from workshops to academic conferences, exhibitions, performances, movie screenings, and other unique initiatives designed to advance the academic profile of the Faculty of Arts. A group may submit a special request for additional expenses.
Projects that have previously received this same funding may re-apply; however, they may be given lower funding priority, and the latest spending report of the previous award will be required.

Interested faculty members should submit a preliminary proposal according to the template on the following pages.

Completed proposals should be sent to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk by 9 June 2026. All applications will be considered by the Director of RIH and submitted for endorsement by the Faculty Dean. The outcome will be announced in July 2026.

Application deadline: 9 June 2026

Proposal template download

Please click here to learn about last year’s awarded projects.

Potential applicants may direct questions to Ms. Basmah Lok, project coordinator at the RIH, at basmahlok@cuhk.edu.hk or call the RIH General Office at 3943 4786.

9 June 2026

Call for proposal – Research Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Group

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 2026/27. The purpose of this initiative is to promote more interaction among RPg students from different disciplines and programmes.

Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

Reading groups are expected to be initiated and organized by RPg students from the Faculty of Arts.
Such groups should be open to anyone interested, including RPg students, research staff and faculty members from across departments.
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.
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.
Supported reading groups will be publicized on the RIH website.

Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

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

Support to Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

The RIH will provide logistical assistance (such as scheduling a meeting place and making arrangements for a visitor) to the group.
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 the proposal template provided below.

Completed proposals should be sent to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk by 9 June 2026. Please send inquiries to the same email address as well.

All applications will be considered by the Director of RIH and submitted for endorsement by the Faculty Dean. The outcome will be announced in July 2026.

Application deadline: 9 June 2026

Proposal template download

Please click here to learn about last year’s awarded projects.

Potential applicants may direct questions to Ms. Basmah Lok, project coordinator at the RIH, at basmahlok@cuhk.edu.hk or call the RIH General Office at 3943 4786.

27 April 2026

Being One Body with All Things: A Confucian Worldview

RIH is honored to host the inauguration of CUHK-ZJU Distinguished Humanities Dialogues.

Being One Body with All Things: A Confucian Worldview by Prof. Peng Guoxiang

Date: Monday, 27 April 2026
Time: 4:00 – 4:30 PM Welcome tea reception
4:30 – 6:00 PM Talk
Venue: ICS LT1, Institute of Chinese Studies, CUHK (In-person event)

Registration Online

Abstract:

This talk begins with a brief genealogy of the idea of “being one body with all things” within the Confucian tradition, highlighting several key representatives from different periods and their expressions of this concept. It then focuses on the interpretation offered by Wang Yangming, the Ming-dynasty Confucian philosopher who provides the most thorough exposition of this worldview. Finally, the talk reveals the distinctive characteristics of the Confucian understanding of “being one body with all things” through a comparative analysis with Daoist thought, particularly Zhuangzi’s concept of “equalizing all things” (qiwu), and briefly suggests two ways in which this Confucian notion remains significant in contemporary contexts.

About the speaker:

Professor PENG Guoxiang, Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, CUHK

Before joining Zhejiang University and being appointed a Qiushi Distinguished Professor in 2014, Guoxiang Peng served as a professor at both Peking University and Tsinghua University in China. He has also been a visiting professor or visiting scholar at universities around the world, including the University of Hawai‘i, Harvard University, and Wesleyan University in the United States; Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and Freie Universität Berlin in Germany; the National University of Singapore; National Taiwan University; City University of Hong Kong; and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has also held research fellowships at leading institutions worldwide, such as the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and Academia Sinica. He also served as the vice president and later as the president of the International Society for Comparative Studies of Chinese and Western Philosophy.

He was the 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North at the Library of Congress (USA) and the 2009 recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. His academic service includes membership on the editorial boards of the Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, Journal of East Asian Philosophy, Studies in Chinese Religions, Frontiers of Philosophy in China, Comparative and Continental Philosophy, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, and History of Chinese Philosophy, among others.

About the discussant:

Professor CHENG Chungyi, Professor, Department of Philosophy, CUHK Brief Biography

21 April 2026

The Virtual Mountain Estate Project: XR and the Remediation of an Early Modern Chinese Landscape

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 21 April 2026 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Stephen Whiteman
Professor of the Art and Architecture of China, The Courtauld Institute of Art (UK),
Co-Editor-in-Chief, The Art Bulletin, and
Trustee, Association for Art History

Click here to register.

Abstract:

This talk explores the Virtual Mountain Estate (VME) project, considering how 3D modelling and XR technologies can help critically reconstruct cultural landscapes. Centred on the Qing imperial park-palace of Bishu shanzhuang 避暑山莊—the Mountain Estate to Escape the Summer Heat—around 1713, VME draws upon diverse sources and iterative 3D modelling to integrate sensory, spatial, and atmospheric cues into a dynamic, immersive environment for research and scholarly dissemination. Deepening our appreciation of cultural landscapes as multisensory worlds shaped by text, place, and subjective perception, this method foregrounds the subjective and ephemeral qualities of historical landscapes, emphasising multivalence rather than any definitive reconstruction.

Bio:

Stephen Whiteman’s research explores the intersections of landscape, identity, and experience in early modern and modern China. He is Professor of the Art and Architecture of China at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and currently serves at the Coeditor-in-Chief of The Art Bulletin.

16 April 2026

Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World

A South Asia from Asia Interdisciplinary Initiative event

Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2026
Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

Speaker: Joshua Ehrlich (Department of History, University of Macau)

Please register here: Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World – Fill in form

Abstract: Since Elizabeth Eisenstein, it has become common to speak of a “printing revolution” in early modern Europe. A transformative role has also been assigned to print in the context of the colonial Americas – and not only among Europeans. But what of its role and reach in the Indian Ocean world, that other major scene of early European expansion, stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to what is now Indonesia? Without exception, historians have described print culture in the region as something “by Europeans, for Europeans,” an alien phenomenon lacking wider uptake or import until after 1800. This paper challenges this consensus. Drawing on untapped sources, including subscription lists and probate records, it shows that large non-European audiences for printed matter emerged in the region from a much earlier date. It finds that, by the eighteenth century, Indians, Lankans, Javanese, Malays, and others were sponsoring, buying, and reading books on a massive scale. Various social groups bought printed matter of various genres in various places for various reasons. This discovery, in turn, has broader implications. It exposes new influences on, and dimensions of, regional political and intellectual movements. Indeed, if works of European art, science, and even radical politics were already penetrating deep into Asian hinterlands, then the influences on – and even origins of – other revolutions in the Indian Ocean world must be reexamined.

Joshua Ehrlich is a historian of knowledge and political thought with interests in European empires, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean world. He is currently Associate Professor of History at the University of Macau. He received his PhD from Harvard University. Ehrlich’s first book, The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge (Cambridge, 2023), reveals how the Company used its commitment to knowledge to justify its commercial and political power. His current book project concerns the spread of printed matter across the Indian Ocean world prior to 1800 and the uses made of it by indigenous inhabitants. Ehrlich’s research has also appeared in journals including Past & Present and Modern Asian Studies.

15 April 2026

Digital Humanities Methods and Translation History

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 15 April 2026 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Diana Roig-Sanz,
ICREA Senior Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)-Barcelona

Click here to register.

Abstract:

In the last twenty years, digital humanities have made a splash among literary scholars, historians, and archaeologists. A growing community of researchers, particularly related to the above-mentioned fields, have largely reflected upon the digital turn and how this has represented an important shift in how we think about literature, cultural heritage, and historical phenomena. Digital editions of literary and/or historical works, especially relevant for the preservation of manuscripts from older times; the geospatial mapping of literary texts to explore spatial relationships between characters, historical buildings, places, and events; the mapping of literary works to understand which texts circulate and where they were published and translated, or the study of historical networks of authors, translators and publishers, have emerged as only a few examples of the engaging forms that digital humanities offer. These developments have been equally followed by sentimental analysis; the examination of themes, topics, style, word frequencies, or collocations within the text; the implementation of natural language processing to address linguistic issues in relation to the past and to present societies, or the production of immersive experiences with digital content. Within this general framework, this seminar will briefly introduce digital humanities as a methodological resource to translation history. The seminar will give empirical examples of past and ongoing research projects examining translation and periodicals, and the analysis of cultural diversity and translation policy at large scale.

Bio:

Diana Roig-Sanz is an ICREA Research Professor and an ERC Starting Grant holder at the IN3 (UOC). She is the coordinator of the Global Literary Studies Research Lab and the principal investigator (with Laura Fólica) of the research line Global Translation Flows. She is also the principal investigator of the ERC StG project “Social Networks of the Past. Mapping Hispanic and Lusophone Literary Modernity, 1898-1959” (Grant Agreement: 803860). She has been a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow and a visiting professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, at the University of Oxford, and has developed research residencies and postdoctoral fellowships at top-ranked institutions like the Centre for Translation Studies (KU Leuven), the IHMC (École Normale Supérieure), the Department of European and Intercultural Studies (La Sapienza), or the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analyses (Amsterdam).

11 April 2026

Advances in Digital Heritage Documentation across Contexts of Warfare, Destruction, and Change

An Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative event

As conflicts escalate worldwide, documenting and safeguarding cultural heritage has never been more urgent. Join the next Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative event on digital heritage in times of warfare and change.

Advances in Digital Heritage Documentation across Contexts of Warfare, Destruction, and Change
Speaker: Prof. Gaygysyz Jorayev (Macau University of Tourism)
Date: Sat, 11 April 2026 | ⏰ 11:00–12:30
Venue: RM201, Cheng Yu Tong Building, CUHK
Language: English

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2772448

27 March 2026

Postgraduate Career Development Workshop – Success on the Job Market:

How to publish in a Top-Tier English Language Journal

Date: 27 March 2026 (Fri.)

Time: 4:30 – 6:00pm

Place: CYT 203 (2/F, Cheng Yu Tung Building), CUHK

Speaker: Prof. Marc S. Rodriguez, Editor of Pacific Historical Review and Professor, Portland State University

Moderator: Prof. Ian Morley, Professor, Vice Chairman (External), Dept. of History, CUHK

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13728346

Whether you’re an undergraduate researcher, graduate student, or early‑career academic, understanding how top journals work dramatically increases your chances of publishing in them.

This talk will give you practical strategies, insider insights, and real-world examples you can apply immediately.

All are welcome!

13-14 March 2026

Postgraduate Workshop on AI in the Humanities

Date: 13 – 14 March 2026
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Venue: User Education Room, G/F University Library, CUHK

Do you want to learn how to apply AI technologies in your research and establish connections with other research postgraduate students who are interested in digital humanities?

If so, just sign up to participate in our workshop for you!

Plus, you can present your work in the poster session on the second day and receive feedback from other students and faculty members by submitting your abstract in 300 words.

Visit the event website https://cuaiworkshop.weebly.com/ for more details.

12 February 2026

Trapped Precarities, Liminal Resistances: The Case of Racial Minority Gig Workers in Hong Kong

A South Asia Interdisciplinary Research Initiative Event

Speaker: Dr. Lisa Yuk-ming LEUNG (Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University)

Date: Thursday12 February

Time: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Venue: Fung King Hey Building G24, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Reserve your seat now! Online registration

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss how platformed capitalism impacts on the struggles and agency of racial minority labour in a post-colonial context. It discusses how gig work such as food delivery platforms, ‘traps’ racial minority workers into socio-technological racial aggression that exposes the ‘racialized professionalism’ rooted in (British) colonial governance. ‘Racial minority labour’ as a lens may further dissect the intersectional hegemonies of colonialism and capitalism, with racism/ racialization as the ‘performative act’. While contextualizing the debates of platformized racial capitalism, I would also wish to shed light on how, amidst such adversaries, migrant gig workers develop and demonstrate tactical agencies through ‘phygital’ resistances. I will elaborate on the ‘solidaric capital’ reflective of migrant workers’ reflective, professional, yet ‘liminal’ resources in facing increasingly neoliberalist and authoritarian platform (and political) governance.

Dr. Lisa Y.M. Leung is Associate Professor of Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University Hong Kong. She has researched and published extensively in the area of transnational media circulation. Her recent research focuses on race, minority, migration. She is co-author of the book Understanding South Asian Minorities in Hong Kong (HKU Press, 2014), and single author of Ethnic Minorities, Media and Participation: Creative Belonging in Hong Kong (Routledge, 2021). In recent years, she has been publishing on the added precarities facing racial minority workers in the age of digitized platform capitalism.

23 - 25 January 2026

HKADH 2026 Conference Keynote Speakers

We’re thrilled to welcome two outstanding DH scholars and a contemporary artist to share their latest research projects at the HKADH 2026 Conference.

Keynote Speakers:

Lauren Tilton (University of Richmond, USA)
Chia Wei HSU (Artist, Filmmaker, and Curator)
Andrew Piper (McGill University)

What to Expect:

3 Inspiring Keynote Talks
Over 30 Short Paper Presentations
3 Organized Panels & 2 Roundtables
Poster Sessions
Unlimited Networking Opportunities

If you’re interested in learning more and engaging in meaningful discussions with DH researchers from around the world, register now!

Admission is free, but seats are limited.
For full details, please visit the event webpage.

23 - 24 January 2026

HKADH 2026 Interactive Workshops

Text and Data Mining for Chinese Historical Texts

Date: Friday, 23 January 2026
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK

Instructor: Prof. Donald STURGEON, Department of Computer Science, Durham University

This hands-on workshop introduces a complete text and data mining workflow for classical Chinese materials, covering the process from digital transcription to data extraction. Participants will learn to: (1) create accurate, linked transcriptions using the Chinese Text Project platform; (2) perform interactive text mining, including pattern matching, text reuse detection, and vocabulary analysis with visualizations such as networks, charts, and heatmaps; (3) apply semantic annotation to link entities (people, places, eras) to authority databases and extract knowledge claims; and (4) conduct interactive data mining using Linked Open Data and SPARQL queries. No prior digital experience is required—only a web browser. Participants should create a free account at ctext.org.

How to Make Research Software with AI: Documentation as Software

Date: Saturday, 24 January 2026
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK

Instructor: Prof. Bo AN, History Department, Lingnan University

This workshop introduces documentation-oriented programming (DOP) as a practical foundation for AI-assisted coding in digital humanities. It begins with a 15-minute overview, followed by three iterative, hands-on stages: (1) converting a concise specification into a TypeScript/JavaScript script; (2) refactoring it into a reusable library and integrating it into a Zotero plugin; and (3) publishing the core as a lightweight, browser-side library with a minimal web interface. A prepared repository includes starter code, tests, and instructions. Participants will explore text-first workflows, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and emerging AI paradigms, gaining skills to build small, maintainable tools and evolve them into robust software projects.

Registration Link: https://shorturl.at/SFzIG

Free Admission. Limited Seats

23 - 25 January 2026

HKADH 2026 Conference

Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities Conference 2026 (HKADH 2026)

Date: 23–26 January 2026

Time: 09:30–18:30

Venue: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Event Webpage: https://2026.hkadh.org/

Event eBrochure: Download

Program: Agenda – Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities 2026 Conference

Book of Abstract: Download

Key Event Highlights

Conference Theme

Distant Reading | Viewing | Perceiving in the Age of AI

Keynote Speakers

The conference featured three distinguished keynote speakers:

Professor Lauren Tilton, E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Liberal Arts and Digital Humanities, University of Richmond (USA)

Mr. Chia Wei Hsu, contemporary artist, filmmaker, and curator

Professor Andrew Piper, Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, McGill University

Professor Lauren Tilton presented her latest research on distant viewing, demonstrating computational approaches to analyzing images, text, and sound. Mr. Chia Wei Hsu explored the concept of distant perceiving, discussing the integration of advanced technologies with aesthetic and creative practices. Professor Andrew Piper delivered a keynote on distant reading, examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping classical narratology.

Participation and Reach

Record Turnout:

The conference attracted over 200 participants.

International Representation:

Attendees came from 12 countries and regions, including China (Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, and Taiwan), Japan, Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Canada, and Nigeria.

Programme Highlights

Extensive Programming:

Nearly 40 short papers, organized panels, and roundtables, alongside 15 poster presentations and two interactive workshops.

Research Focus:

The programme emphasized emerging and late breaking research in digital humanities, with sessions covering large language models (LLMs), graph reasoning, computational literary studies, computer vision methods, multimodality, and agentic systems.

31 January 2026

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2026 -2028

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Research Institute for the Humanities
2026-28 Postdoctoral Fellowship

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

The Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is recruiting for a number of post-doctoral fellowships in the humanities, working within the Faculty of Arts.

These fellowships will commence on 1 August 2026 and end on 31 July 2028.

Fellows are expected to pursue a major research project as proposed in their applications, attend RIH events, and actively participate in the intellectual life of the Faculty of Arts. Applicants whose research interests align with RIH’s current interdisciplinary projects may receive preference. Please refer to the RIH website for details on the six interdisciplinary research projects.

Qualifications: Applicants must have been awarded a Ph.D. by 31 July 2026 and should be no more than three years beyond receipt of the doctoral degree at the start of the fellowship. The appointment is non-renewable and cannot be held concurrently with other fellowships or academic positions.

How to apply: The application period for 2026 – 28 opens on 1 December 2025 and closes on 31 January 2026.

Applications will be accepted online through the CUHK Human Resources portal (Career Opportunities @CUHK/Administrative, Professional, Executive, Clerical, Technical & Research Posts/ Job Number: 2500021O). The following materials are required:

A cover letter
Current curriculum vitae
A 1,000-word research statement explaining the originality and significance of the proposed project
A 25-page writing sample in English
Three reference letters (requested only for shortlisted candidates)

Benefits: 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.

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

25 November 2025

Visualising Translation (Studies): How to Enhance Historiographical Knowledge with Digital Methods

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 25 November 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Philipp Hofeneder, Independent postdoc. researcher, Vienna, Austria
Moderator: Dr. Lidia Zhou, Lecturer, Department of Translation, CUHK

Click here to register.

About the talk
Visualisation is generally understood as the ability to present scholarly findings in a way that is easy to understand (and is thus predominantly directed towards a non-academic audience). However, visualisations can also convey complex processes and content, making a key contribution to the generation of scholarly knowledge. This talk introduces the added value of data visualisation in processing, analysing and presenting scholarly findings. The subject of the study is a 19th-century historiographical work that was translated into numerous languages and became the basis for further adaptations, including its conversion into a school textbook, popular science summaries, an atlas, a picture book and numerous reviews.

About the speaker

Philipp Hofeneder (*1981) is an independent postdoctoral researcher from Vienna/Austria. With a background in Slavic Studies (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian) and Translation Studies, he is interested in historical phenomena of knowledge transfer and the associated forms of communication in multilingual and pluricultural societies (Habsburg Monarchy, Russian Empire, Soviet Union). For some time now, he has been applying methods from the digital humanities, including data visualization, digital knowledge production and science communication.

Recent publications are: (in print, together with Diana Roig-Sanz) „Digital Translation History. Digital Humanities Methods in Translation Studies, Benjamins Translation Library; “Visualizing translation history. Fragmented Visualizations Representing Space and Time”, in: Brown, Hilary, Toepfer, Regina, Wesche, Jörg (eds.) “Early Modern Translation and the Digital Humanities”, Berlin: Springer – J.B. Metzler 2025, 149-168 https://link.springer.com/book/9783662704820; “The circulation of knowledge vs the mobility of translation or how mobile are translators and translations?”, in: Feinauer, Ilse, Marais, Amandas, Swart, Marius (ed.) Translation flows: Exploring networks of people, processes and products [= Benjamins Translation Library 163], Amsterdam 2023: John Benjamins, 23-42

21 November 2025

Artificial Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Research Framework For AI

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Date: 2025-11-21 (Fri)
Time: 10:30 AM -12:00 NOON
Mode of event: Online (Zoom link will be provided upon request)

Registration: https://cuhk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VuJp3uxVSyC4UQxNihUVFg#/registration

Speaker: Dr. Nina Beguš (UC Berkeley)
Moderator: Prof. Xuenan Cao (CRS, CUHK)

About the talk:
This talk introduces artificial humanities, an interdisciplinary framework for exploring the cultural, philosophical, and ethical dimensions of AI. It considers the role of fictional narratives in shaping technology, from Pygmalion’s Eliza Doolittle to Weizenbaum’s ELIZA. Powers’s Galatea2.2, films like Her and Ex Machina, and today’s large language models. The lecture concludes with humanistic approaches to AI and the cultural implications of machines using human languages.

About the speaker:
Nina Beguš is a researcher at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society. She leads the Artificial Humanities Group, focusing on science and technology studies, philosophy of science, and narratology. Author of Artificial Humanities: A Fictional Perspective on Language in AI (2025)

Co-organized by the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Centre for Cultural Studies, and the Research Institute for the Humanities, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

19 November 2025

Quantitative Study of Chinese Ceramic Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 800-1900 AD

Join us for an enlightening lecture titled: 千年的陶瓷之路：中國陶瓷在西印度洋貿易的量化研究 (Quantitative Study of Chinese Ceramic Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 800-1900 AD) presented by Dr. Zhang Ran from Durham University, U.K. Please note that the lecture will be delivered in Mandarin.

Date and Time: 19th Nov (Wednesday) 12:00 – 14:00
Location: NAH401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=3300072

Abstract: Chinese trade ceramics, as symbolic and specialised commodities and artefacts of China, played a crucial role in the Indian Ocean trade for over a millennium from approximately 800 to 1900 AD, facilitating long-distance exchange across Eurasia. These ceramics are characterised by features that are well-identifiable and datable, alongside evidence of mass production and consumption by diverse social classes, from nobles and emperors in China to humble and local communities in the Persian Gulf. Chinese ceramics have been studied through various approaches, including art history, history, archaeology, and scientific material analysis. This paper aims to provide a recent systematic and comprehensive understanding of Chinese trade ceramics, from their production in China to their consumption in the Western Indian Ocean, using quantitative methods.

Following the lecture, a light lunch will be provided, offering a great opportunity for casual chats with the speaker and fellow attendees. We welcome audiences of any background to join.

The lecture is free for all, but please note that registration is REQUIRED due to limited capacity. To ensure we have enough refreshments for everyone, kindly RSVP by November 17th at 3 PM. Your place is only secured upon receipt of a confirmation email from us.

14 November 2025

Digital Feminisms in Asia: Cultural Studies Postgraduate Symposium

A Digital Feminisms in Asia interdisciplinary research project event

Digital Feminisms in Asia: Cultural Studies Postgraduate Symposium

Convenor: Cecilia Ka Hei Wong

Amid the global resurgence of anti‑feminism, it is time to critically engage with the manifold forms of digital feminisms, particularly within Asian contexts. The Digital Feminisms in Asia Network presents the Cultural Studies Postgraduate Symposium (14 November 2025) as a platform for reflection and dialogue.

The symposium opens with a keynote titled “Against On‑Demandness and Objective Neutrality: Feminist Media from the Asian Diaspora” by Prof. Feng‑Mei Heberer, author of Asians on Demand: Mediating Race in Video Art and Activism and Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University.

Following the keynote, two RPg panels will showcase the latest research on the critical intersections of media, technology, and feminisms across Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and India. These presentations will be discussed by Prof. Lucetta Kam (Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University) and Prof. Ling Han (Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong).

The symposium is co‑organised by the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Digital Feminisms in Asia RIH Interdisciplinary Initiatives Project, and the Centre for Cultural Studies, and is sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK.

Symposium Details
Date: 14 November 2025
Time: 2:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Venue: SWH 1 (G/F), Fung King Hey Building, CUHK

Registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=3806239

Programme Rundown

Opening Keynote

Title: Against On-Demandness and Objective Neutrality: Feminist Media from the Asian Diaspora

Speaker: Prof. Feng-Mei Heberer, Department of Cinema Studies, New York University

Abstract: On-demandness is a defining feature of digital media. It manifests in the often taken-for-granted expectation of instant accessibility and nonstop service. This talk features feminist media practices from the Asian diaspora, from onscreen performance to on-set production, to explore how on-demandness is also key to the imperial legacy of Asian gendered racialization. In dialogue with the media work of Asian diasporans, I ask how we may reframe the function of digital media in ways that intervene in often violently neutralizing discourses and theories of digitality.

Moderator: Prof. Jia Tan, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK

Panel 1: Platform Governance and Feminist Activisms

Discussant: Prof. Ling Han (Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Papers:

Algorithmic Necropolitics and the Post-Biological State: Governing Digital Futurity in Japan’s Moonshot Research & Development Program

Maari Sugawara, City University of Hong Kong

Crossing Borders, Making Histories: Transnational Feminist Practices of Young Chinese Women

Sugyeong Son, Seoul National University

Simulating the Unseen: Lisa’s Crazy Horse Show and Its Controversy in Chinese Digital Feminism

Chengsi Wang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Survival, Companionship, and Visibility with Platforms: (Re)producing Solidarity in Hong Kong Queer Spaces

Roland Cheng, University of Toronto & University of Hong Kong

Panel 2: Anti-Gender Politics and Queer Feminisms

Discussant: Prof. Lucetta Kam (Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University)

Papers:

‘Let Games be Games!’: Why Have Feminism and Inclusivity Become Growingly Incompatible with Video Game Culture?

Jamie W.T Tse, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Trans-(lat)ing law: Trans legal activism and livestreaming culture in Hong Kong

Cecilia Ka Hei Wong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Recognising the Stranger—Queer unhomeliness and the woman as Other in Postcolonial Indian queer cinema.

Radhika Vang Jensen, Hong Kong Baptist University

Love on Hold: Queer Temporality and the Politics of Affection between Queer Women and Their Heterosexual Mothers in Javanese Muslim Families

Dayu Ajeng Anggrahita, Universitas Gadjah Mada

Pre-Symposium Workshop

Before the symposium, we hold a private workshop to let presenters get together and discuss researching digital feminisms across our six Asian contexts. We are delighted to have Charis Poon, an experienced feminist zine maker and teaching fellow at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, join us to creatively lead and document these discussions, which will be compiled into a digital zine.

Date: 14 November 2025
Time: 9:30 a.m.–12:00 noon

Post‑Symposium Activity

After spending a whole day on campus, we offer a walking tour focusing on issues related to gender, race, and urban development in the Yau Tsim Mong district for the Symposium presenters, led by queer feminist artist and activist Holok Chen.

Date: 15 November 2025
Time: 3:00–4:30 p.m.

Enquiries:

Cecilia Ka Hei Wong (Convenor) – ceciliawongkh@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Issac Li (Coordinator) – issacli@cuhk.edu.hk

Poster design: Tian Yang

4 November 2025

Digital Humanities &/as Electronic Literature

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 4 November 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 9:00 am (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Jessica Pressman, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University
Moderator: Dr. Lidia Zhou, Lecturer, Department of Translation, CUHK

Click here to register.

About the talk
Digital humanities is often aligned with big data, computation, and technology, but digital humanities is also a set of methodologies, paradigms, and practices based in the experimental arts. This talk introduces digital humanities as a framework for understanding electronic (born-digital) literature, and vice versa. Prof. Pressman uses her own research trajectory as a means of introducing and explaining digital humanities, providing entry points for students, scholars, and creators to engage with and expand through digital humanities.

About the speaker

Jessica Pressman is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University, where she co-founded SDSU’s Digital Humanities Initiative. She is the author of Bookishness: Loving Books in a Digital Age (Columbia University Press, 2020), Digital Modernism: Making It New in New Media (Oxford University Press, 2014), and co-author, with Mark C. Marino and Jeremy Douglass, of Reading Project: A Collaborative Analysis of William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit} (University of Iowa Press, 2015). She co-edited two volumes: Comparative Textual Media: Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) with N. Katherine Hayles and Book Presence in a Digital Age (Bloomsbury Press, 2018) with Kiene Brillenburg Wurth and Kári Driscoll. She is at work on a book about 21^st-century mermaid narrative. Her full CV, including recent research, can be found at www.jessicapressman.com.

21 October 2025

Cleaning and Reconciling Literary Historical Data with AI: Reflections from the STEMMA Project

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 21 October 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Erin McCarthy, Professor of English Literature and Computational Humanities and the Principal Investigator of the STEMMA Project, University of Galway

Click here to register.

About the talk

The European Research Council-funded project “STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse, 1475–1700” aims to build the first large-scale computational model of the circulation on English-language poetry. To do so, the STEMMA team has reconciled five of the most comprehensive sources of data about early modern poetic manuscripts. In this talk, Prof. McCarthy will describe the use of computational methods such as locality sensitive hashing, cosine similarity, and LLM agents to assist with the cleaning and reconciliation of historical data. These methods allow us to strike a balance between working with “dirty” data and retaining evidence of the untidy state in which it was found. However, they still require significant computational effort and literary historical supervision. The talk will therefore reflect on the opportunities and challenges presented by such work and offer ideas about future directions.

About the speaker

Erin A. McCarthy is Established Professor of English Literature and Computational Humanities and the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded project “STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse, 1475–1700” at the University of Galway. She is the author of Doubtful Readers: Print, Poetry, and the Reading Public (Oxford University Press, 2020), which was named an Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE and won the 2020 John Donne Society Award for Distinguished Publication. She is currently completing two monographs: a jointly authored monograph about the findings of the RECIRC project, “The Reception and Circulation of Early Modern Women’s Writing in Manuscript Miscellanies, 1550–1700,” with Marie-Louise Coolahan and Sajed Chowdhury, and a sole-authored monograph called “Interpreting Early Modern Manuscripts: Towards a New Methodology.” Her scholarship has also appeared in the John Donne Journal, SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900, the Review of English Studies, Criticism, and Reformation.

14 October 2025

Current issues in copyright and LLMs in Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 14 October 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Christof Schöch, Professor for Digital Humanities, Co-Director, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, University of Trier

Click here to register.

About the talk
Digital Humanities aims to combine advanced computational methods with Open Science principles. Yet this aspiration often collides with the realities of copyright law. This talk examines how generative Large Language Models (LLMs) reshape the copyright landscape for Digital Humanities research. While high-profile lawsuits capture public attention, researchers in the DH community researchers have developed pragmatic solutions, such as ‘extracted features’ or ‘derived formats’ to make copyrighted texts accessible for analysis and model training without infringing copyright. Such formats enable applications ranging from literary analysis to fine-tuning LLMs. Yet these strategies may be at risk: What if LLMs themselves make it easy to regenerate the original copyrighted material? This possibility invites a broader reflection on the future of copyright, data sharing, and methodological innovation in the Digital Humanities.

About the speaker
Christof Schöch is Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Trier, Germany, scientific Co-Director of the Trier Center for Digital Humanities (TCDH) and co-editor of the Journal of Computational Literary Studies (JCLS). In the past, he has been president of the Association for Digital Humanities in the German-speaking areas (DHd, 2018–2022) and president of the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO, 2023–2024).

8 October 2025

Extended Reality in Archaeology

An Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative event

Speakers: Prof. Peter J. Cobb, Prof. Lukas Z. Liu, Mr. Hayk Azizbekyan, and Ms. Wuyan Yao (The University of Hong Kong)

Date: Wednesday, 8 October 2025
Time: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Venue: Learning Garden & MakerSpace, LG/F, University Library, CUHK

Click here to register

This workshop is free for all to attend, but due to limited capacity, registration is REQUIRED. Your place is only secured upon receipt of a confirmation email from us.

About the workshop

This workshop will explore the potential of immersive technologies in reshaping how we learn, experience, and conduct research in Archaeology. Bringing together perspectives on Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), the session highlights how these tools are being applied across education, tourism, and archaeological data collection. Participants will gain insights into how VR can enhance teaching and learning, how AR can enrich travelling experience in tourism, and how MR interfaces can support archaeological data collection. In addition to thematic discussions, participants also get a chance to discuss with speakers, fostering critical reflection on both opportunities and challenges. The workshop will end with a demonstration section, allowing attendees to engage directly with immersive technologies and consider their implications for innovation across disciplines. By bridging conceptual discussions with practical exploration, this workshop offers a unique opportunity to experience and reflect on the future of digital immersion in academic and professional contexts.

If you are interested in exploring the roles of VR/AR/MR in archaeological research, promoting cultural heritage, and/or education, this event is perfect for you!

2025 - 2026

Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

To facilitate the Faculty of Arts’ postgraduates in meeting the challenges of tomorrow, RIH’s Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Group Initiatives encourage students to cross knowledge boundaries, aspire to become competent, versatile, and creative scholars.

Congratulations to the 6 selected Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups (2026 -2027)!

Grounding the Cloud: Infrastructure, Media, and Digital Culture
Counterpoint: Reading the Understudied
Language, Linguistics & Philosophy (LLP)
Framing Truth: Fictionality, AI-Generated Discourse, and Predictive Models
Collective Portraits of Thought in Early China: Classics, Masters, and the Narrative Politics of Historiography
Women’s Education and Female Virtue: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups (2025 -2026)

Green Worlds: Nature, Narrative, and More-than-Human Pasts and Futures website
Weaving Narratives, Curating Stories: Engagements with Critical Heritage Studies (CHS)
Practising Word/Work/Worlds: Intermedial creative practice, feminist-ecological philosophy, and situated methods
Queer Feminist Approaches to Media, Art & Resistance
Classics, Commentaries, and Contemporary Connections
Re:Code – Exploring Digital Methods in Research

Stay tuned to RIH’s Facebook and Instagram for the latest activities of our Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups!

Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups (2024 -2025)

An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Early China
Bridging the Humanities and Sciences: Cognitive, Environmental, Philosophical, and Religious Perspectives
Poetics of Response-Ability: In Search of Polyphonic Voices from Asias to the Worlds
Reading Group of Confucianism – Focusing on Recently Published Books Written by Leading Scholars
CUHK Philippine Studies Interdisciplinary Reading Group
Interdisciplinary Reading Group on South(-East) Asian Culture: Technologies, Bodies and Power
Women’s World Literature from the 18th to 21st Centuries: Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives
Language and the World

詩質釋放如何與「間距」的演進並讀–夏宇詩vs詩經
Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 14:00 – 16:00
Venue: CKB 123 (陳國本樓)
Speaker: Prof. Yung Man-Han, Emeritus Professor & Adjunct Professor, Cheng Kung University of Taiwan
臺南成功大學榮退教授翁文嫻教授

Women’s World Literature (Dec 2024 – Jan 2025): Nineteenth Century
Dates: Fridays, 20 Dec. 2024 & 24 January 2025
Time: 3-5:30pm
Venue: 3/F E-Zone, FKH

Women’s World Literature (Oct – Nov 2024): Eighteenth Century
Date: 25 Oct. 2024

2023 – 2024 Selected Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Groups

Analysis of Social Life and Local Community in Linxiang County during the Eastern Han Period: A Reading Group on the Wuyi Square Manuscripts五一廣場簡牘
The CUHK Hong Kong Studies in Arts and Culture Reading Group
Neuro-mapping China: History, Culture, Translation and Digital Humanities
Interdisciplinary Study of Chinese Philosophy and Religion: Theory and Practice
CUHK Philippine Studies Interdisciplinary Research Group
Phase Boundaries: In-between the Creative and Empirical
Philosophy of Language Reading Group
Interdisciplinary Ethnography Reading Group
東（南）亞世界的文學、語言

1 September 2025

Theorizing Race in and through Asia

A RIH-funded Interdisciplinary Research Project

Asia represents a vital terrain for examining racialized relations and discourses that transcend Euro-American analytical frameworks. This initiative offers a dedicated platform for researchers to share their work on racialization in Asia and to foster meaningful collaboration.

To decenter and complicate Western theories of “race,” the Theorizing Race in and through Asia initiative aims to build a network of CUHK faculty, postgraduate students, and other scholars in Hong Kong. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and develop new theoretical approaches and methodologies for studying racialization processes through distinctly Asian historical, ethnographic, legal, literary, and linguistic materials.

Project team:

CUHK Faculty Members

Venera Khalikova, Anthropology (Project Coordinator)
Sealing Cheng, Anthropology
Wyman Tang, Anthropology
Leilah Vevaina, Anthropology
Stuart McManus, History
Gary Luk, History
Shoan Yin Cheung, Cultural Studies
Ting Guo, Religious Studies
Collier Nogues, English
Nishant Shah, Journalism and Communication
Aaron Jeffrey Hames, Anthropology
Lynne Nakano, Japanese Studies

CUHK RPG Students

Gabriella Angelini
Juliette Wu
Joseph De Guzman
Li Xing

Non-CUHK

Emily Chow-Quesada, English, HKBU
Catherine Ladds, History, HKBU
Roberto Castillo, Cultural Studies, Lingnan
Jan Gube, Curriculum and Instruction, EdUHK
Miron Bhowmik, Educational Policy and Leadership, EdUHK
Christine Walker, History, HKU
Alastair McClure, History HKU
Alvin Wong, CompLit HKU
Hans Ladegaard, English and Communications, PolyU
James Simpson, Humanities, HKUST

For enquiries, please contact the Project Team at Race-in-Asia@cuhk.edu.hk

Events

(13 Feb. 2026, CUHK) Theorizing Race In And Through Asia 2nd Meeting
Time: 12:30 – 2:30 pm Venue: NAH 401 (Humanities Building, New Asia College)
In this meeting, participants exchanged course syllabi pertaining to race and racialization and engaged in an in‑depth discussion of pedagogical methodologies, instructional challenges, observed student responses, and the collective planning processes undertaken by the group.

(3 Oct. 2025, CUHK) Theorizing Race In And Through Asia Inaugural Lunch
Time: 1:30 – 3:30 pm Venue: NAH 401 (Humanities Building, New Asia College)
For enquiries, please send email to Race-in-Asia@cuhk.edu.hk

2025 - 2026

Weaving Narratives, Curating Stories: Engagements with Critical Heritage Studies (CHS)

A RIH sponsored RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group

This reading group aims to engage with the emerging interdisciplinary field of Critical Heritage Studies (CHS) by enriching and expanding its means of storytelling into musical, sensory, material, religious, literary, de-/post-colonial, and historical realms. We promote the critical definition, imagination, understanding, and methodological practice about heritage; We respond to an entangled contemporary world of memory and legacy.

Activities:

Regular meetings (based on reading materials)
Peer workshops for in-progress work
Guest talk
Field trip
Special curations for creative art and performance

Contact:

If you are interested to join us, please contact the group coordinator, Mr. Yusheng Lei (PhD student, Department of Music, CUHK) Email: yushenglei@link.cuhk.edu.hk

All are welcome!

2025 - 2026

Green Worlds: Nature, Narrative, and More than Human Pasts and Futures

A RIH sponsored RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group

This RPg reading group explores the intersections of environment, politics, history, literature, philosophy, law, anthropology, fine arts, and music from a global humanities perspective. Through fiction, poetry, personal essays, memoirs, ethnographic accounts, religious texts, and artistic expressions, the group examines urgent ecological issues—climate change, species extinction, extractivism, colonial ecologies, and the legal personhood of nature—through diverse cultural and disciplinary lenses. Bringing together students and faculty from across the arts and humanities, the group fosters cross-departmental collaboration and builds a shared vocabulary for environmental thinking.

Monthly activities:

Roundtable discussions on papers in progress
Reading group collaborations

Everyone interested in Blue and Green Humanities is welcome!

Contact:

Ananya Roy (PhD student, English Literary Studies (ELS))
Email: a.roy@link.cuhk.edu.hk
Reading group blog: https://greenworldscuhk.wordpress.com/

4 - 8 August 2025

From Text to Tech at DHOxSS 2025

Mar Lorence Gamboa Ticao,

MPhil in History, Year 2

Attending the Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School, 4-8 August 2025, was an intense but rewarding experience. I joined the From Text to Tech track, which was structured with three lectures and a tutorial each day. The sessions were well-paced, and I appreciated how generous and approachable our instructors were—always ready to offer guidance and answer questions. Their energy and openness made the packed week of learning much more enjoyable.

I was also able to apply what we learned to my own research on historical newspapers from colonial-era Manila. The course gave me practical tools for processing historical texts using Python and pandas, and introduced me to resources I can use to develop future digital outputs that visualize textual and spatial patterns in historical narratives. Learning more about large language models also helped me better understand the potential and limitations of digital approaches in humanities research.

While the schedule left little room for visiting Oxford’s many museums and libraries, evenings offered time to explore the city’s streets, gardens, and architecture with other participants. On the final day, I even found a peaceful nature trail along the Castle Mill Stream and Oxford Canal.

I’m grateful to the Research Institute for the Humanities at CUHK for making this opportunity possible through their Digital Humanities Initiatives. Their continued support enables students to explore emerging tools, connect with international scholars, and engage in conversations that push the boundaries of interdisciplinary humanities studies.

4 - 8 August 2025

My Experience @ DHoxSS 2025

From Text to Tech at DHOxSS 2025

Mar Lorence Gamboa Ticao,

MPhil in History, Year 2

Applied Data Analysis at DHOxSS 2025

Colin Lam Hoi Sing
MPhil in History, Year 1

The DHox Summer School was a highly fruitful experience in my MPhil studies. While the stunning city of Oxford and its academic atmosphere were wonderful, the people and the memories created were the true highlights.

I chose the Applied Data Analysis strand, which offered small class sizes, intensive coding practice, and the opportunity to develop my own project. Initially, it was quite challenging. However, with the help of our course instructors, Paul and Ellen, I successfully completed this advanced course. The data analysis skills I learned, such as those related to Pandas and Geopandas, have been a great help in applying them to my master’s project, which explores the planning and governance of public space in Hong Kong and Macau.

At the end of the class, I presented my project, which I developed during that week, and received a rubber duck, marking the course’s completion. This was a personal highlight because the word “duck” sounds like “得” in Cantonese. It felt like all the participants felt “得” after the intensive week of training. (Photo 1)

I also enjoyed all the insightful conversations and the many funny moments both in and outside the classroom. I discovered unexpected opportunities for collaboration and formed valuable friendships here. (Photo 2, 3, 4, and 5) Finally, I am grateful to the Research Institute for the Humanities at CUHK for providing this valuable opportunity to further explore Digital Humanities and connect with the global community.

1 October 2026

Re:Code – Exploring Digital Methods in Research

A RIH sponsored RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group

Re:Code is a cross-disciplinary reading group that brings together research postgraduate students from the arts, humanities, communication, sciences, and engineering to critically reflect on how digital tools and data practices shape the way we do research. Instead of providing technical training, the group focuses on exploring topics such as geospatial analysis, text mining, metadata design, data visualization, and platform studies. Our aim is to create a shared, collegial, and practice-aware environment for dialogue, where we can exchange insights, questions, and challenges related to the digital methods we use or encounter in our respective fields.

Reading List:

1. Armaselu, Florentina, Gioele Barabucci, Raffaella Biscioni, Chiara Bonacchi, Sandra Camarda, Thomas Cauvin, Priya Chhaya, et al. Handbook of Digital Public History. Edited by Serge Noiret, Mark Tebeau, and Gerben Zaagsma. München; De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2022.
A comprehensive overview of digital tools and platforms in public history, including crowdsourcing, digital archives, storytelling, and user engagement. Relevant for those among us working on public histories or whose research interests include public-facing digital work.

2. Berry, David M., ed. Understanding Digital Humanities. Houndhills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
A collection of critical reflections on digital humanities, examining its theoretical foundations, political stakes, and epistemological challenges. Serves as a strong starting point for collective discussion about the field itself.

3. Dawson, Catherine. A-Z of Digital Research Methods. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
An encyclopedia-style reference covering a wide range of digital research tools and terms—from text mining to sentiment analysis—explained in accessible language. To be used as a reference for the group when specific methods come up in readings or discussions.

4. Drucker, Joanna. The Digital Humanities Coursebook: An Introduction to Digital Methods for Research and Scholarship. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2021.
An accessible guide to key digital humanities methods, including data modeling, visualization, text analysis, and critical data literacy, with a strong emphasis on interpretative, humanities-based approaches.

5. Gubrium, Aline, and Krista Harper. Participatory Visual and Digital Methods. Walnut Creek, California: Coast Press, 2013.
Introduces participatory research methods using visual and digital tools such as photovoice and digital storytelling. Grounded in community-based and qualitative traditions, it highlights ethical and collaborative dimensions of digital research.

6. Jockers, Matthew Lee. Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History. Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
A foundational work in digital literary studies that introduces large-scale text analysis (“distant reading”) to explore literary trends, genres, and authorship through data-driven methods.

7. Snee, Helene, ed. Digital Methods for Social Science: An Interdisciplinary Guide to Research Innovation. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Chapters by Claire Hewson and Jo Hope explore ethical challenges in digital research and mixed-mode methods to expand research participation, offering practical insights into inclusive and responsible digital practice.

Activities:

- Themed discussions based on selected readings
  - What are Digital Methods and Why Do They Matter?
  - Scale and Distance in Digital Humanities
  - Participatory and Visual Methods
  - Tool Criticism and Data Reflexivity
  - Public Humanities and the Ethics of Sharing
- Occasional lightning talks by members to relate readings to their research
- Collaborative meetings with guest speakers
- End-of-year session for reflections

Website: https://recodecuhk.substack.com/p/finding-meaning-in-data

Contact:

If you are interested to join us, please contact the group coordinator, Carleon MENDOZA (PhD student, Department of Linguistic, CUHK) Email: mendozacarleon@link.cuhk.edu.hk

All are welcome!

31 July 2025

Archaeological Conservation: From Ain Ghazal to Egyptian Papyrus

An Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative event

Speaker: Ms. Merry Chow (University College London)

Date: Thursday, 31 July 2025
Time: 14:30 – 17:30
Venue: Room 104, Tsang Shiu Tim Building, United College, CUHK

Limited seats (Quota: 20)! Please register as soon as possible.

This talk provides a vital look into cultural heritage conservation, focusing on how we preserve and stabilise historical objects for future generations. We will explore key conservation principles using real-world examples, including the delicate Neolithic plaster statues from Ain Ghazal, Jordan, and their unique preservation challenges. The talk will also highlight the crucial role of conservation during active excavations, covering emergency stabilisation and environmental factors.

Following the talk, there will be a two-hour hands-on workshop which offers a fascinating dive into the world of ancient papyrus conservation. You will learn about papyrus as a material and then get to conserve your own “aged” papyrus. The workshop will guide you through the intricate processes of consolidating flaking pigments and repairing tears on fragile fragments. This is a unique chance to gain a tangible understanding of the meticulous care required to preserve these invaluable historical artifacts.

30 September 2025

Congratulations to the 2025 – 2027 RIH Interdisciplinary Initiative Awardees!

RIH is thrilled to announce the outstanding recipients of the RIH Interdisciplinary Initiatives 2025–2027:

Prof. Christina Cheung (Department of Anthropology) for her insightful project, Archaeological Science in Hong Kong, which brings together diverse disciplines to explore the region’s rich historical landscape.

Prof. Venera Khalikova (Department of Anthropology) for her thought-provoking initiative, Theorizing Race in and through Asia, which aims to deepen our understanding of race and identity across the continent.

We’re excited to see how these initiatives will spark fresh ideas, foster interdisciplinary dialogue, and contribute meaningfully to the humanities.

Stay tuned for updates and highlights from these inspiring projects!

12 May 2025

Imaging Manuscripts and Building Academic Bridges

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 12 May 2025 (Monday)
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Location: Digital scholarship Lab. G/F., University Library, CUHK

Speaker: Prof. Simon Mahony
Emeritus Professor of Digital Humanities,
Department of Information Studies,
University College London (UCL)

Click here to register.

About the talk

There is much pressure to digitise our precious ancient texts and make them available in a variety of formats. Imaging work, however, must not be permitted to damage the priceless and irreplaceable artefacts and so it is of great importance that the imaging techniques are non-invasive and non-destructive so as not to cause damage.

This talk introduces a variety of techniques to address research questions arising from textual manuscripts, both paper and parchment. In addition, through incorporating these techniques into the taught curriculum, the lab serves as a critical bridge between academia and industry facilitating the practical application of digital skills in cultural heritage contexts where students are able to gain valuable practical experience. There will also be some reflection on the significant issues involved in the management of an imaging lab.

About the speaker

Simon Mahony is Emeritus Professor of Digital Humanities, Department of Information Studies, University College London (UCL); Visiting Professor, Department of Information Management, Peking University. He is a Corresponding Member of the Sub-Committee on Education and Research, UNESCO Memory of the World Programme; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Prof. Mahony was Programme Director of the MA/MSC in Digital Humanities at UCL (2011-2017) and Director of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (2017-2020). He is a doctoral supervisor, and on the advisory and editorial boards of several journals and research groups. His research focus is on digital humanities with specific interests in education, communication, information studies, digital storytelling, equality, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and the open agenda.

9 May 2025

The Importance of Open Access, Open Data, and Open Science

Date: Friday, 9 May 2025
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm (Welcome reception will start at 10:30 am)
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab, G/F., University Library

Speaker: Prof. Simon Mahony
Emeritus Professor of Digital Humanities,
Department of Information Studies,
University College London (UCL)

Click here to register.

About the talk:

There has been a long established and traditional mechanism for the production and development of knowledge within the academic sphere. The affordances of the digital and of global connectivity are changing these mechanisms particularly with the moves towards openness and accessibility for all, as well as the need for common standards for access and reusability. Changes in the modes of publication over recent decades and moves to publish material freely and openly have resulted in increased amounts of research and other scholarly material being openly available online. Making research outputs freely available online is praiseworthy but without the data on which that research is based, reproducibility and so verification, which are fundamental principles of scholarly methodology, are not possible. What are these new models and how might they impact on knowledge production? This talk has a focus on open access, open data, and open science. What benefits and what difficulties do we encounter along this new pathway? How might these changes be managed?

About the speaker:

This event is jointly organized by the Research Centre for the Human Values (RCHV) and the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH), in collaboration with the CUHK University Library.

11 April 2025

Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines

Date: 11 April 2025 (Friday)
Time: 9am – 6pm
Venue: 202 (2F) Cheng Yu Tung Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Click here to register.

An ice-breaking event designed to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration – with members from Faculty of Arts, Engineering, Science, and Social Science – on the critical topic of evaluating Generative AI. This is an opportunity to connect and discover potential future collaborations in a relaxed and engaging environment.

We’ve curated a diverse lineup of presentations showcasing a range of perspectives on AI, covering ethics, finance, creative expression, and more.

Morning Session:

9:00 – 10:15 AM: Hybrid Panel – AI, Ethics, and Beyond
- Sophia Goodfriend (Harvard): AI, Ethics, and Armed Conflicts
- Tianren Luo (Brown): Generative AI and Finance
- Linus Huang (HKUST): The Moral Sense of Generative AI
- Moderated by Kecheng Fang (CUHK)
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM: In-Person Panel – Generative AI Evaluations
- Daniella Gati (U Suffolk): Queer Critique of Generative AI
- Nishant Shah (CUHK): Gender & Sexual Rights in the face of AI harms
- Farzan Farnia (CUHK): Diversity Evaluation of Generative AI
- Lidia Zhou and Xuenan Cao (CUHK): Refusal Policies
- Moderated by Collier Nogues (CUHK)

Afternoon Session:

2:30 – 4:00 PM: Keynote Conversations
- Ellen Seiter (HKBU): AI Film Productions (Moderated by Tan Jia, CUHK)
- Simon Goldstein (HKU): AI and Military Conflicts (Moderated by Christopher Patterson, UBC)
4:10 – 5:40 PM: In-Person Panel – Public Humanities Collaborative Projects
- Collier Nogues (CUHK), Jack Tsao (HKU), and team: A Survey of GenAI and Creative Expressions
- Marcel Sagesser (SusTech), Tristan Braud (HKUST), and team: Visual Modelling and the City of Shenzhen
- Moderated by Lai Kwan Pang (CUHK)
5:45 PM: Concluding remarks
- David Huddart, Director of the Research Institute for the Humanities

Convenors: Xuenan Cao, Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, with her CUHK colleagues Collier Nogues, Jia Tan, and Jiji Zhang.

2 April 2025

Meeting with Carin Rustema (University of Amsterdam) & Artur C. Jaschke (University of Cambridge)

An What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Date: Wednesday, 2 April 2025
Venue: Gastronomy Club, 5/F Cheng Yu Tung Building
Enquiries: please send email to xuenancao@cuhk.edu.hk

1 April 2025

Living and Dying during Wars and Epidemics – New Bioanthropological Perspectives from Medieval Northern Italy

An Interdisciplinary Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative.

Date and Time: 1st April (Tuesday) 12:00 – 14:00
Location: Si Yuen Amenities Center, United College, CUHK
Click here to register.

About the Lecture:
Enjoy an insightful talk by Dr. Elena Fiorin from Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy, where she will share her research on community responses to large-scale crises such as wars and pandemics in Medieval Northern Italy, based on bioanthropological evidence. Following the lecture, a light lunch will be provided, offering a great opportunity for casual chats with the speaker and fellow attendees. We welcome audiences of any background to join; no prior experience in archaeology or pathology is necessary.

The lecture is free for all to attend. Due to limited capacity, registration is REQUIRED. Please RSVP by the 28th March at 3 PM to help us ensure there are enough refreshments. Your place is only secured upon receipt of a confirmation email from us.

28 March 2025

Anaïs Nin’s Diaries & the Art of Truth-telling

Organized by the Women’s World Literature from the 18th to 21st Centuries RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group

Anaïs Nin’s Diaries & the Art of Truth-telling

Guest speaker: Dr. Pinky Lui

Date: Fri., 28 Mar. 2025

Time: 3:30 – 6:00pm

Place: FKH, 3/F., E-Zone, CUHK

This talk introduces the first volume of Anaïs Nin’s Diaries, Henry & June, as a gateway to explore her unique approach to life writing and her endeavour to share women’s experiences from a first-person perspective. Nin started keeping a diary at the age of 11 until early in her 70s, placing her thoughts and experiences on pages that eventually testify to her transformation into an artist. As she began writing and publishing fiction in the early 1930s, she was also investing her artistic ambition into diary writing; for Nin, she is her diary as much as her autobiographical fiction is a part of her. By looking into Nin’s art of truth-telling, this talk will investigate the complexity of feminist writing in the early 20th century, presenting her diaries as a grand yet underestimated narrative that celebrates womanhood in all its intricacies.

All are welcome!

17 March 2025

Digital Methods for an Emic History of Climate

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 17 March 2025 (Monday)
Time: 5 PM (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Luca Scholz
Senior Lecturer (Assoc. Prof.) in Digital Humanities
University of Manchester
www.lucascholz.com

Click here to register.

About the talk

In recent decades there has been an increased uptake of digital mapping as a method of historical research. While the methodological and thematic concerns of digital spatial history have expanded, most of the maps created in historical research visualize data of phenomena on the surfaces of land and sea and rarely consider the atmosphere that envelops them.

This talk examines how historians and their collaborators map Earth’s atmosphere. Climate historians have long employed a sophisticated visual repertoire that is effective for determining the physical properties of weather and climate but detaches the atmosphere from the human and non-human worlds it envelops. More recently, algorithmic methods of layering data allow scholars to represent the atmosphere at larger scales and in close connection with the human environment, yet their maps remain committed to a physicalist vision of weather and society.

Drawing on Dr. Luca Scholz’s research on the history of weather modification, this talk will discuss the interest in representing weather and climate as they were understood and confronted by historical contemporaries. The wider proposition is that historians might benefit from crafting their own cartographic language rather than borrowing it.

About the speaker

Luca Scholz is Senior Lecturer (Assoc. Prof.) in Digital Humanities and History at the University of Manchester (UK). His work combines archival research and computational methods to study spatial history, intellectual history, and the history of weather and climate.

15 March 2025

EoP003: Urban Mapping and Generative AI Workshop and Reading Group

Date: Sat, 15 March 2025
Time: 10:30 am-5:00 pm
Meet at Prince Edward station.

Following the last two panel discussions on urban practice and technology, the next workshop and reading group will integrate the two topics into a one-day event in Prince Edward. It will include an urban mapping exercise around the Flower Market to gather data collectively for the generative AI workshop in the afternoon. In between the action-based workshop activities, there will be a reading group to initiate discussion mapping and generative AI practice.

The workshop and reading group will be led by Melody Yiu and Ashley Lee Wong, with technical support from Andrew Crowe from MetaObjects and Edwin Lo.

This event is organised by the Ecologies of Participation initiative (EoP) and supported by the Research Institute for The Humanities, CUHK.

Limited capacity
Register to join: https://forms.gle/PKVvMNJ3DnDKyrgr5

The workshop will be conducted in English. Light lunch will be provided.

Participants will receive a link to the readings and workshop schedule after registration.
Please register by Wed, 12 March 2025

About EoP

Ecologies of Participation (EoP) Research Collective was initiated by Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts), Melody Yiu (Research Assistant Professor of Architecture) and Ashley Lee Wong (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024. The research initiative aims to develop practice-based collaborations between the creative arts, architecture and media and cultural studies.

Website: https://substack.com/@eopcuhk
IG: https://www.instagram.com/eop.cuhk/
Enquiry: eop.cuhk@gmail.com

Supported by The Research Institute for the Humanities and The Faculty of Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

12 March 2025

When Fans Meet AI: A Feminist Ethics of Care for Participatory Culture in Digital Asia

A Digital Feminisms in Asia Talk Series event:

Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2024

Time: 2:30-4pm

Venue: LPN_LT (G/F), Y C Liang Hall (LHC), The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Prof. Eva Cheuk-Yin LI, Lancaster University

Moderator: Prof. Jia TAN, CUHK

Please click here to register

Abstract

As generative AI technologies become increasingly accessible, fan communities find themselves at the forefront of experimenting with these tools, raising complex questions about creativity, authenticity, and ethics. This talk examines the evolving relationship between fandom and artificial intelligence, revealing how fan practices are not just shaped by AI but actively shape our understanding of AI’s societal impact. I propose the framework of Human-Community-Machine Interactions (HCMI), which helps us understand how individual fans, fan communities, and AI systems interact in ways that create new forms of participatory culture while potentially generating unintended consequences.

Drawing from case studies including fans’ responses to celebrity scandals in Asia, a key focus of this talk is the development of a feminist ethics of care for studying AI in fandom, particularly in the Asian contexts. Moving beyond traditional fan studies approaches, this framework considers not only fans’ interests but also the broader implications of AI-enabled fan practices for celebrities, industry workers, and digital culture at large. Through specific case studies of fans’ responses to celebrity scandals and AI-generated content, this talk contributes to broader conversations about feminist approaches to AI ethics, digital community dynamics, and the future of participatory culture. It suggests how the experiences of Asian fan communities with AI can provide valuable insights for developing more thoughtful and responsible approaches to technological innovation that consider local cultural contexts and feminist concerns.

Speaker’s Biography

Eva Cheuk-Yin Li is an Assistant Professor in Media and Cultural Studies in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University. She holds a PhD in Gender, Media, and Culture from King’s College London. Her research interests span queer media, fandom, gender non-conformity, and diaspora media. Her work has appeared in edited volumes, encyclopaedias, and peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of Cultural Studies, Sexualities, and Crime, Media, Culture. Her current projects include research on Thailand’s Girls Love (GL) media, with a recent article (co-authored with Ka-Wei Pang) titled “Queer Media from the Global South: The Emerging Girls Love (GL) Media Industry of Southeast Asia” in Feminist Media Studies, as well as her first monograph, The Middle Gender: Strategic Resistance Against Gender Binary in Sinophone Asia, which is under contract with Amsterdam University Press.

The event is organized by the MA in Intercultural Studies and Centre for Cultural Studies, and sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK

7 March 2025

Day of Digital Humanities 2025

Date: 7 March 2025 (Friday)
Time: 9:30 am – 5:30 pm
Place: Digital Scholarship Lab, G/F University Library, CUHK

Come and join us to learn about the latest developments in the use of digital tools and technologies with traditional humanities disciplines. Be inspired by DH scholars from around the world and explore new possibilities for research, teaching, and scholarly communication by leveraging digital technologies. The one-day event will offer you opportunities to discover new patterns, connections, and insights in humanistic research projects, as well as facilitate collaboration and access to information across geographical and disciplinary boundaries.

Reserve your spot now—space is limited! Online reservation

Speakers and Programmes

Dr. Barbara McGillivray, Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
Prof. Timothy Tangherlini, School of Information and Department of Scandinavian, UC Berkeley
Practical DH Workshops* specifically designed for non-science students
DH Support at CUHK Library for the CUHK Community
Digital Scholarship Service and MarkerSpace
Lunch will be provided for full-day participants

Please click the ebrochure for full details

*Workshop participants are required to bring their laptops and have the provided software and datasets pre-downloaded (a link will be provided to registrants). Participants with some knowledge of Python will find it helpful, but it is not required.

3 March 2025

Visual Culture and Bias in AI

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 3 March 2025 (Monday)
Time: 5 PM (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Leonardo Impett, Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge

Click here to register.

About the talk

Despite existing, by some accounts, since the early 1980s, digital art history has an understandable nervousness about its own disciplinary nature. A 2005 collection edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel called it a “subject in transition”; Johanna Drucker in 2013 famously asked “Is There a “Digital” Art History?”; and even the first issue of the International Journal of Digital Art History, in 2015, was devoted to the question: “What is Digital Art History?”

As the field is necessarily conditioned both by current technical developments and by the interests and practices of art historians more broadly, we should have no reason to think it will fossilise into the kind of stable methodological discipline that these questions seem to call for. By looking at some of the experiments in digital art history over the past forty years (from, for instance, Marilyn Lavin and Martin Kemp), I will instead try to ask: where is digital art history now, and where might it usefully go next?

One area that is generating significant interest at present is artificial intelligence, and more specifically computer vision. It is clear that having a machine which can understand images with some sophistication ought to be useful to the discipline of art history – yet there are few practical proposals on precisely how this might work. I will argue that the next chapter for digital art history will lie in reversing this relationship: in uncovering the cultural perspectives, the ways of seeing, of computer vision itself. Taking the technology, in other words, from a tool to an object of study.

In this Zoom talk, Prof. Leonardo Impett will introduce us to the world of “Digital” art history. One area currently generating significant interest is artificial intelligence, and more specifically, computer vision. It is clear that having a machine capable of understanding images with some sophistication ought to be useful to the discipline of art history; yet, there are few practical proposals on precisely how this might work. Prof. Impett will argue that the next chapter for digital art history lies in reversing this relationship: uncovering the cultural perspectives and ways of seeing inherent in computer vision itself. In other words, he advocates taking the technology from being merely a tool to becoming an object of study.

About the speaker

Leonardo Impett is an assistant professor in the Faculty of English at Cambridge as part of Cambridge Digital Humanities. He has a background in machine learning and computer vision, with a PhD at the Image and Visual Representation Lab of the EPFL, and was subsequently based at Villa I Tatti, Durham University, and the Bibliotheca Hertziana, with whom he continues to collaborate at the intersection of art history and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He is currently writing a book with Fabian Offert at UCSB, and is occasionally forced to write about himself in the first person.

25 February 2025

EoP003: Technology-Enabled Participation in Artistic Practices

Date: 25 February 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 19:00 – 21:00 (HKT)/ 11:00 – 12:00 (GMT)
Online

The third Ecologies of Participation (EoP) panel discussion will explore the role of technology in participatory art projects. In the post-digital age, humans and technology are inextricably entwined. Technologies augment our bodies, mediate our communication, and shape our understanding of ourselves in society. This panel discussion brings together artists, curators and scholars to explore how technology is used to enable digital participation and collective knowledge production. We will look at technology as a participant with generative AI contributing to a co-creative process in stimulating our collective imaginations, and how technology, mediates shared experiences through networked VR experiences and virtual world platforms.

Panelists:

Helen Knowles, Artist & PhD Candidate, The University of Northumbria, UK
Zabia Jabbar, Founder & Curator of HERVISIONS, UK
Debbie Ding, Artust0scholar and PhD Candidate, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Registration link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EUKqeIGCQXSrUNiiI0D24Q#/registration

About EoP:
Ecologies of Participation (EoP) is a transdisciplinary research collaboration between Fine Arts, Architecture and Media and Cultural Studies. Through panel discussions, workshops, artistic projects and symposiums, the initiative aims to bridge research and practice by providing platforms for developing experiments with creative practice, technology, and urban space. It was initiated by Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts), Melody Hoi Lam Yiu (Research Assistant Professor of Architecture) and Ashley Lee Wong (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024. The initiative aims to develop practice-based collaborations to explore the role of creative arts in society.

Website: https://substack.com/@eopcuhk
IG: https://www.instagram.com/eop.cuhk/

27 January 2025

On Classification for Sensemaking with Large Language Models

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 27 January 2025 (Monday)
Time: 12:00 noon (HKT)/ -1 day 20:00 (San Francisco time)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. David Bamman

Click here to register.

About the talk

Classification is often used as a sensemaking practice in the fields of cultural analytics and computational social science. In this talk, I’ll survey the range of functions by which NLP intersects with this form of measurement, and assess where large language models fit into this landscape by focusing on three broad topics: empirically assessing the performance of LLMs compared to traditional supervised methods on a new assembly of ten tasks relevant to cultural analytics, exploring the ways in which LLMs can be employed for sensemaking goals beyond mere accuracy, and measuring the threats to validity of such uses that arise from pretraining memorization.

About the speaker

David Bamman is an associate professor in the School of Information at UC Berkeley, where he works in the areas of natural language processing and cultural analytics, applying NLP and machine learning to empirical questions in the humanities and social sciences. His research focuses on improving the performance of NLP for underserved domains like literature (including LitBank and BookNLP) and exploring the affordances of empirical methods for the study of literature and culture. Before Berkeley, he received his PhD in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and was a senior researcher at the Perseus Project of Tufts University. Bamman’s work is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, an Amazon Research Award, and an NSF CAREER award.

24 January 2025

Women’s World Literature Interdisciplinary Reading Group (Dec -Jan) Meeting: Nineteenth Century

We excitedly invite you to our December and January ‘Women’s World Literature’ Reading Group meetings to explore nineteenth-century women’s texts with expert, international, and interdisciplinary insights from two upcoming guest speakers – Dr. Winifred Liu and PhD(c) Rawan Mohamed.

Meeting details:

Chains of Freedom, Feminism & Resilience in Bakhita: A Novel of The Saint of Sudan
Speaker: Rawan Mohamed PhD(c)
Dates: Friday, 24 January 2025
Time: 3- 5:30pm
Venue: FKH, 3/F E-Zone (and on Zoom)
Contact: alicevharling@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu And How Feminism Hits Different When You’re Rich
Dr. Winifred Liu, Saint Francis University, Hong Kong
Dates: Friday, 20 December 2024
Time: 3- 5:30pm
Venue: FKH, 3/F E-Zone (and on Zoom)
Contact: alicevharling@link.cuhk.edu.hk

21 January 2025

EoP 002: Participatory Spatial Practice

Panel Discussion

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
20:00 – 21:30 HKT (07:00 – 08:30 EST)
Online event via Zoom

Speakers:

Patrick Cheng-Chun Hwang
Architect and Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan

Jessica Thompson
Media artist and Associate Professor in Hybrid Media, University of Waterloo, Canada

Minna Vaijakka
Senior Researcher, Art History and Asian Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

The second Ecologies of Participation (EoP) panel discussion will explore urban mapping as a medium of participation. Reviewing participatory art practices since the late 20th century, urban space has become not only a static site of happening but also plays an active role in creating experiences. The act of mapping allows us to re-examine the familiar everyday space carefully and opens up new perspectives to question the preconceptions about the built environment. Different from the passive or reactive user of urban space, the creative user engages with space through a critical lens and intervenes in the often-deterministic designed conditions. Through constructing a map involving multiple public participants, what kind of collective image or understanding can be created that leads to social transformation?

About the speakers:

Dr. Minna Valjakka specializes in artistic and creative practices in East and Southeast Asia. Through locally embedded research at the intersection of art studies, urban studies and environmental humanities, she investigates how different practices created in public spaces interact with varied forms of ‘publicness,’ shared agency and civil society formation. Her multi-sited approach includes ethnographic fieldwork and archival research across the region. Minna has held numerous research fellowships and published widely in journals, books, and exhibition catalogues. Currently, she is working on a monograph about art and plants and leads the interdisciplinary project “EcoConjunctions,” funded by the Research Council of Finland (2024-2028).

Patrick Cheng-Chun Hwang’s main scholarship field is foundation design pedagogy in general and drawing education through “relational collaboration” in particular. His recent publications include “Drawing the Line” in JAE (2022), and “Inclusive Disegno” in Ardeth (2023). Patrick is a Taiwanese-American educated at RISD and Columbia University, and is a licensed architect in the United States. He has practiced architecture and taught in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He is currently Associate Professor at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. Prior to joining NCKU, he taught at CUHK for over ten years.

Jessica Thompson is a media artist working in sound, performance, and mobile technologies. Her practice investigates how sound reveals spatial and social conditions within cities, and explores how creative applications of urban data can create new forms of citizen engagement.

Her interactive artworks have been featured in exhibitions, festivals, and art fairs worldwide, including the International Symposium of Electronic Art (San Jose, Dubai, Vancouver), the Conflux Festival (New York), Art Basel Miami Beach, New Interfaces in Musical Expression (Oslo), Re:Sound (Aalborg), and The Politics of Sound (Lethbridge). She is an Associate Professor of Hybrid Media at the University of Waterloo, where she currently serves as the Director of the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business.

About EoP:

Ecologies of Participation (EoP) is a transdisciplinary research collaboration between Fine Arts, Architecture and Media and Cultural Studies. Through panel discussions, workshops, artistic projects and symposiums, the initiative aims to bridge research and practice by providing platforms for developing experiments with creative practice, technology, and urban space. It was initiated by Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts), Melody Hoi Lam Yiu (Research Assistant Professor of Architecture) and Ashley Lee Wong (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024. The initiative aims to develop practice-based collaborations to explore the role of creative arts in society.

Website: https://substack.com/@eopcuhk

IG: https://www.instagram.com/eop.cuhk/

13 December 2024

Toward an Anthropology of Time and Recognition

Organised by The Hong Kong Anthropological Society in association with The Hong Kong Museum of History*
An anthropological lecture by Angel Naydenov

Date: Friday, 13 December at 7:00 p.m.
Place: Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui
All are welcome! Space, however, is limited to 139 seats.
The lecture is conducted in English.

China’s Sichuan Province provides an excellent ethnographic case for rethinking human time in relation to social recognition. Hiding in plain sight, the region’s familiar hedonistic ethos entails a particular construction of selfhood that negates both hierarchy and accumulated time. For such negation to be possible only certain aspects of the self (sensory, playful, comic) are recognised as relevant to its realisation. Sichuan’s hedonistic disposition is thus marked by an emphasis on concrete recognition between potentially equivalent subjects. It exists alongside a second logic of abstract recognition: that of linear progress and competition, in which hard work and struggle in comparison to abstract others by reference to formal measures (wealth, property, education) orient the self toward future gratification. These two logics underline a basic existential tension between presentism and linearity in Chinese society and suggests that the way selves ascertain their worth socially is fundamental to their sense of being in time.

Angel Naydenov’s research examines the entanglements of time, value, and selfhood in rural China. His first book manuscript, Rhythms of Realisation: Time, Value, and Recognition in the
Mountains of Southwest China, is based on 17 months of fieldwork in Sichuan and explores the dominant value pursuits through which subjects seek self-realisation and thus find their way in time.

About the speaker:
Before his appointment as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Angel Naydenov received his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2023. He had previously been trained at the London School of Economics (M.Sc. China in Comparative Perspective, B.Sc. Social Anthropology).

For more information, please contact Stan Dyer on 9746 9537 or anthrohk@gmail.com,
www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/hkas , www.facebook.com/hkanthro,@HKASTalks
* The Museum makes no representations on the content of this lecture.

12 December 2024

Eop001.2 Workshop + Reading Group on Sound at Chuen Lung

Following the panel discussion on “Sound as a Medium of Participation” held in November 2024, we will host a “Workshop + Reading Group on Sound at Chuen Lung” on December 12. This event aims to initiate dialogue between arts practitioners and participants by sharing practice-based creative processes.

The workshop will begin with a listening workshop inspired by the works of Canadian artist Murray Schafer and the local art group Twenty Apha, followed by a reading discussion on Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of “listening” and the theory of the “anti-ocular” turn-in knowledge acquisition.

In the second half of the workshop, participants will engage in a field recording session to explore Chuen Lung from an auditory perspective. Chuen Lung, one of the oldest Hakka villages in Hong Kong, is renowned for its watercress farming and offers an alternative to urban living on the outskirts of the city, near the summit of Tai Mo Shan. The workshop will be facilitated by local artists, Edward Lo and YIM Sui Fong.

The workshop will be conducted in English.

Limited capacity (20 pax.)

Meet at Mei Foo station at 1:30 pm to take a shuttle bus to Koon Man Space. The Shuttle bus leaves Koon Man Space at 5:30 pm to return.

Successful registrants will receive a link to the readings.

Registration deadline: Thu., Dec 5, 2024

First come, first serve.

Registration link:

https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2948474

9 December 2024

“Comics, Games and Zines”: Arts-Based Methods for Research, Reflection and Audience Engagement

RIH Interdisciplinary Reading Group “Poetics of Response-ability” Talk Series

Speaker: Professor Gregg Bucken-Knapp, University of Gothenburg (Sweden)

Date & Time: (Mon) Dec 9, 2024. 11am-1pm

Location: E-ZONE, 3/F Fung King Hey Building, CUHK

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2967253

About the speaker:

Gregg Bucken-Knapp is Professor in public administration. His research interests are migration and integration in a broad policy and administrative context and arts-based research methods. His latest book, Messages from Ukraine, is a graphic novel depicting the diverse experiences of Ukrainians during the Russian invasion, including those displaced, involved in the war effort, observing from abroad, or trapped in besieged cities.

About the event:

In this talk, Prof. Bucken-Knapp will explore how three arts-based methods—comics, serious board games, and collaborative zines—can serve as research tools for personal reflection among researchers and participants, as well as a strategy to reach new audiences.

Messages from Ukraine interprets text messages from Ukrainian colleagues sent in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in comic form, highlighting themes of forced displacement through everyday war experiences.

At The Crossroads is a collaboratively designed serious game in which Ukrainian refugees share their stories of displacement at home and abroad through a simple board game that focuses on the challenges faced by those who fled.

Lastly, he will showcase three recent zine projects: 1) workplace challenges for migration professionals in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans; 2) how these professionals respond to media misrepresentation; and 3) how Thai performing arts students translate social commentary from performances into print. Each project emphasizes learning by doing and highlights the affordances of arts-based research as a tool to foster understanding and engage audiences.

5 - 6 December 2024

Urban Mediations: International Conference on Narratives, Ecologies, and Poetics of the City

City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, 5 December 2024
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, 6 December 2024

This is a cross-institutional, interdisciplinary conference with nearly 60 established and emerging scholars from diverse fields of study, including literary and cultural studies, film and media studies, architectural and urban studies, art and visual studies, cultural anthropology, history, and geography, applying various critical and creative methods to analyze different cultural genres and analytical objects that engage with the urban across geographic locations and historical periods. The conference will feature an artist talk and a walking tour. Workshops will be conducted on emerging topics for PhD students. Plenary speakers include Lieven Ameel (Tampere), Nishat Awan (UCL), Cecilia L. Chu (CUHK), Dominic Davies (City St. George’s), Peter Dickinson (Simon Fraser), Lee Kah-Wee (NUS), Gina Marchetti (Pratt), Jasmine Nadua Trice (UCLA), Jini Kim Watson (Melbourne), and Linda Chiu-han Lai (CityUHK).

Check out the full program.

Registration for the conference is now open. You can register via this link (or you can use the QR code on the e-poster):

https://urbannarrativesnetwork.com/urban-mediations-2024-registration/.

Registration Deadline: 15 November 2024

This conference is co-organized by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Research Institute for the Humanities, Centre for Cultural Studies & MA in Intercultural Studies Programme, Departments of English and Cultural & Religious Studies; City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), Department of English; University of Hong Kong (HKU), Center for the Study of Globalization & Cultures in the Department of Comparative Literature.

For more details and inquiries, please visit the event webpage

4 December 2024

Echoes from Tomorrow: Contemporary Women’s Digital Filmmaking in Cambodia

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project – Digital Feminisms in Asia.

Date: Wednesday, Dec 4, 2024

Time: 5-6:30pm

Venue: LT8 (2/F), Yasumoto International Academic Park, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Dr. Philippa Lovatt, University of St Andrews, UK

Moderator: Prof. Jia Tan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/mycuform/view.php?id=2893068

Echoes from Tomorrow is a crowdfunded production project that was launched in 2017 by the Phnom Penh based production company Anti-Archive, to support Sreylin Meas, Danech San, and Kanitha Tith to direct their first digital short films: A Million Years (San, 2018), California Dreaming (Meas, 2019), and Tith’s The Crab (in production). Like several of the Anti-Archive films they had previously worked on, the Echoes from Tomorrow films depict urban and rural Cambodia in a process of spatial transformation. In this talk, which draws from my co-authored book with Jasmine Nadua Trice, Practices of Futurity: Spatial Transformation and Southeast Asian Film Cultures, I analyse A Million Years and California Dreaming, alongside two earlier works by Tith: the multi-media installation Hut Tep Soda Chan (Hut of an Angel) from 2011 that took place at Tith’s home by Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh, a site that was facing imminent demolition by developers, and the 2014 video work, Boding made in Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building three years before its razing. I argue that Meas, San, and Tith explore themes of spatial transformation through gendered, embodied, and imaginative registers that provide a counter-narrative to those of capitalist speculation and development. Drawing from the decolonial, feminist approaches of Aimee Bahng and others, I show how these digital works offer alternative conceptions of value against a wider background of displacement and dispossession.

The event is organized by the MA in Intercultural Studies and Centre for Cultural Studies, and sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK.

22 - 23 April 2025

Call for papers: Online Symposium – Virtual Spaces and New Horizons: Humanities in the Digital Age

April 22 – 23, 2025

Online Symposium – Virtual Spaces and New Horizons: Humanities in the Digital Age

(Please click here to view the Chinese version)

The SOAS-Tsinghua Symposium 2025 will be held via Zoom on April 22–23, 2025. This event is part of the UK-China Humanities Alliance (UKCHA) International Forum Series, titled ‘World Maps and World Cultures.’ It is hosted by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at SOAS University of London, the Institute for World Literatures and Cultures at Tsinghua University, and UKCHA. As a member of UKCHA, CUHK is now calling for applications.

Call for Papers

The digital era has intensified the urgency to explore humanistic themes, such as language and communication, literature and arts, identity and self, philosophy and aesthetics, history and memory, spirituality and thought. This forum aims to bring together international scholars from various disciplines to reflect on both the opportunities and challenges that the digital age presents for the humanities. We invite papers that explore questions emerging from the intersection of the virtual and physical worlds.

Suggested topics for papers include, but are not limited to:

New Languages
New Forms of Expression
New Aesthetics
New Epistemological Hegemonies
The AI Conundrum
Reading beyond the Text
Exhibitions beyond Disciplines
Gender, Labour and Digital Creativity
Community and Solidarity in the Digital Age
Reproducing/Rewriting/Recreating the Idea of Modernity
Genealogies of the Human World

Submission Information & Guidelines
Please submit abstracts of 350 words and a biographical note of 100 words to both Xiaoning Lu (xl1@soas.ac.uk) and Haina Jin (jinhaina@cuc.edu.cn) by 10 January 2025. Please entitle your email “SOAS-Tsinghua Workshop Proposal”. Acceptance of abstracts will be notified by 15 February 2025, and the workshop program will be available by 10 March 2025.

For more information, please visit the event webpage (English)

29 November 2024

Public Humanities: FIH Generative AI Workgroup Invited Speaker Series

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Speaker: Yucong Hao (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University)

Lin Du (Postdoc, National University of Singapore)

Moderator: Xuenan Cao (Assistant Professor, CUHK)

Date: Nov 29 (Fri.)

Time: 10am – 12pm

Venue: Tse Chiu Kit Room CK TSE (G/F) on the ground floor of the Chung Chi College Library

Please click here to register.

26 November 2024

Immediate Recognition and the End of Time: On the Synchronic Production of The Present in Rural Sichuan, China

Organised by the Centre for China Studies

Speaker: Dr. Angel Naydenov (Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Institute for the Humanities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong).

Date / 日期: 26 November, 2024 (Tuesday) / 2024年11月26日（星期二）

Time / 時間: 16:00 – 17: 30 PM (HKT) / 下午4時至5時30分（香港時間）

Venue / 地點: ELB_204, CUHK/ 利黃瑤璧樓204室

Language / 語言: English / 英文

Kindly register through the QR code provided on the attached poster or the direct
https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13697648

Abstract:

This talk examines a world of Dionysian undifferentiation between social equals in China, which discards accumulated time through shared sensory indulgence. While the sensory has long been recognised as an important element in the production of sociality in China, it is the temporal aspects of embodied experience that are key to understanding its significance. In Lushan, people commonly seek experiences of immediate presence with others through acts of feasting, gambling, singing, and gossiping, all of which are key to the characteristically Sichuanese ethos of ‘life enjoyment’. Mutual recognition through engagement in ‘pure sociability’ (Simmel) is the defining feature of this ethos and is a way for self and other to ascertain their place in time. The performative enactment of ‘pure sociability’ renders particular histories, wealth, ambitions, status, and individuality insignificant because they suggest discordant temporal horizons.

Biography:

Angel Naydenov’s research examines the entanglements of time, value, and selfhood in rural China. His book manuscript, Rhythms of Realisation: Time, Value, and Recognition in the Mountains of Southwest China, is based on 17 months of fieldwork in Sichuan and explores the dominant value pursuits through which subjects seek self-realisation and thus find their way in time.

21 November 2024

Postgraduate Career Development Workshop – Success on the job market: CVs and cover letters

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: 21 November 2024 (Thursday)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Venue: CYT, LT5 (3/F., Cheng Yu Tung Building)

Click here to register.

21 November 2024

詩質釋放如何與「間距」的演進並讀–夏宇詩vs詩經

A RPg Interdisciplinary Reading Group Event.

Interdisciplinary Reading Group on South(-East) Asian Culture: Technologies, Bodies & Power

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Time: 14:00 – 16:00
Venue: CKB 123 (陳國本樓)
Language: Putonghua

Speaker: Prof. Yung Man-Han, Emeritus Professor & Adjunct Professor, Cheng Kung University of Taiwan
臺南成功大學榮退教授翁文嫻教授

以法國當代哲思匯注中國古代經典，可以開拓出怎樣的思想理路？當詩經的風雅頌與夏宇的腹語術共奏齊鳴，又會煥發怎樣的美感經驗？翁文嫻教授兼治古典與現代漢詩，並精通法國當代思想。本次講座從法國漢學家朱利安（François Jullien）的「間距」理論出發，藉朱利安對漢語語言特質的思考，將最古老的《詩經》與最前衛的台灣詩人夏宇並置閱讀，思考漢詩語言如何超越千年歳月的阻隔，在時光的淘洗下綻放綽約風姿。

8 November 2024

EoP 001: Sound as a Medium for Participation

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project: Practice-as-Research: Producing Knowledge Through Participatory Creative Practice

Date: Friday, 8 November 2024
Venue: Music Room, Eaton HK, 4/F, 380 Nathan Road, Jordan, Kowloon
Time: 19:30 – 21:00

Ecologies of Participation (EoP) Research Collective was initiated by Yim Sui Fong (Assistant Professor of Fine Arts), Melody Yiu (Research Assistant Professor of Architecture) and Ashley Lee Wong (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2024. The research initiative aims to develop practice-based collaborations between the creative arts, architecture and media and cultural studies.

For this panel discussion, on “Sound as a Medium for Participation”, we bring together artists and scholars including Brandon LaBelle (sound artist and theorist, and artistic director of Listening Biennial), Ryo Ikeshiro (sound artist and Assistant Professor, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong) and Dayang Yraola (curator and Associate Professor at the Department of Theory, College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines) to explore how sound and artistic practices contribute to new collective understandings of our cities and urban environments.

Speakers:

Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer and theorist living in Berlin. He is also the founder and artistic director of The Listening Biennial and related Listening Academy. His work focuses on questions of agency, community, pirate culture, and poetics, resulting in a range of collaborative and extra-institutional initiatives, including Communities in Movement (2019-2023), Oficina de Autonomia (2017), The Living School (with South London Gallery, 2014-16), The Imaginary Republic (2014-19), Dirty Ear Forum (2013-21), Surface Tension (2003-2008), and Beyond Music Sound Festival (1998-2002). In 1995 he founded Errant Bodies Press, an independent publishing project supporting work in sound art and studies, performance and poetics, artistic research and contemporary political thought. His publications include: Dreamtime X (2022), The Other Citizen (2020), Sonic Agency (2018), Lexicon of the Mouth (2014), Acoustic Territories (2010, 2019), and Background Noise (2006, 2015). His most recent book on sound studies, Acoustic Justice (2021), argues for an acoustic model by which to engage questions of
social equality.

Ryo Ikeshiro is an artist, musician and researcher who explores the possibilities of meaning and context through sound and its materiality in relation to digital audio and technologies. His work includes installations and live performances using immersive audiovisual environments, field recordings and generative works. He has participated in exhibitions at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea, and M+ Museum of Visual Culture, Hong Kong, and he is a contributor to Sound Art: Sound as a medium of art, a ZKM Karlsruhe/MIT publication. He is an Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
https://ryoikeshiro.com

Dayang Magdalena Nirvana T. Yraola, PhD is a curator and a scholar based in Manila. Her curatorial foci are exhibiting interstitial art and collaborative productions. Her research includes ecology of art practice, archive as method, and listening cultures. Her most recent curatorial project is “For The Record”, an open studio for archiving sound art practice, which also included sound camp with artists and scholars from Manila and Hong Kong. This year, she received the University of the Philippines Chancellor’s Prize for Most Outstanding Teacher, the highest accolade for academic personnel in active service, for her contribution in teaching, creative work, research and extension service within and beyond the University.

About EoP

Website: https://substack.com/@eopcuhk
IG: https://www.instagram.com/eop.cuhk/
Enquiry: 1155197846@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Supported by The Research Institute for the Humanities and The Faculty of Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Venue supported by Eaton HK.

6 November 2024

Transnational Urban Narratives Network reading group meeting

Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Time: 5 – 7pm
Venue: Room 1310, Li Dak Sum Yip Yio Chin Academic Building, City University of Hong Kong view campus map

For this session about smart cities and urban informatics, the reading group will read the eponymous 2nd chapter of Shannon Mattern’s book A City is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences (Princeton UP, 2021) together with Erin McElroy’s article “Dis/possessory Data Politics: From Tenant Screening to Anti-Eviction Organizing” (International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 47 (2023)).

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691208053/a-city-is-not-a-computer

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2427.13150

The discussion leader will be Prof. Wesley Attewell of the Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong.

Kindly sign up to the Nov 6 reading group meeting via this link: https://urbannarrativesnetwork.com/reading-group/. This will enable you to access the readings for the session and obtain the QR code for the venue.

4 November 2024

Text Mining and Political History: challenges and opportunities in the age of Big Data

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series

Date: 4 November 2024 (Monday)
Time: 5:00 pm (HKT)
Via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Luke Blaxill

Click here to register.

About the talk

This talk addresses the challenges and opportunities afforded by the computational analysis of unreadably large textual datasets. Dr. Blaxill argues that historians have failed to grasp these profound opportunities. Despite the abundance of machine-readable data liberated by digitisation, there has been no widespread embrace of text mining, cliometrics, or a broad philosophical debate on the role of computing in history. This ambivalence has arisen mainly from apathy, sidelining computational analysis into a specialist methodological niche. This damages the intellectual vitality of the discipline and its capacity to engage with the dawning age of data science and associated developments in artificial intelligence.

This talk will showcase examples of text mining in action in modern British political history. Case studies will include election speeches from 1880-1910, the contributions of women in Parliament since 1945, and nineteenth-century election violence. Dr. Blaxill argues for a reopening of the wider methodological debate about historians and computers. This requires informed skeptics to come forward to engage with advocates to discuss how we face the future.

About the speaker

Luke Blaxill is college lecturer in Modern British History at Hertford College University of Oxford. He has published widely on text mining in History, especially British politics, including in Past & Present in 2024. His first book, The War of Words- the language of British Elections 1880-1914 was published in 2020 with the Royal Historical Society.

28 October 2024

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series – Conceptual changes in vaccine discourse. A social media, graph-based analysis of the HPV vaccine case in Italy

Date: 28 October 2024 (Mon)
Time: 5pm (HKT)
Via Zoom
Language: English

Join Now!

Speaker:
Dr Lorella Viola, Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities & Society, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

About the talk:
Understanding how public health discourse evolves in response to increased scrutiny or societal changes is essential to help democracies develop effective strategies to counteract potentially harmful effects. This study examines the temporal dimension of how this type of public discourse evolves conceptually. The use case is the Italian discourse on Twitter related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, a vaccine that has been at the centre of anti-vaccination campaigns for several years (Kornides et al. 2023; Chen et al. 2021; Calo et al. 2021; Massey et al. 2020). Informed by Critical Discourse Analysis (Reisigl and Wodak 2001) theory and using bi-grams, graph analysis, and the Girvan-Newman community detection method (Girvan and Newman 2002), the study maps how changes in the HPV discourse are manifested through hashtags in Italian tweets from 2012 to 2024. The assumption is that hashtags can be interpreted as cultural products (Weller et al. 2013; Zappavigna 2012; 2016; La Rocca 2019) and that these cultural products can offer important insights into the concepts users have associated with the HPV vaccine over the past twelve years as well as answer questions of discourse proliferation and awareness. The results show a significant conceptual change. While in the years 2012-2020, the Italian HPV discourse on Twitter was mostly concerned with virus awareness and vaccine advocacy, in the years 2020-2024 anti-vaccination narratives not only spiked but they almost entirely replaced the initial discourse.

In this talk, Dr. Viola will explore how public health discourse—specifically related to the HPV vaccine on Twitter in Italy—has evolved from 2012 to 2024. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis and various analytical methods, her presentation examines the role of hashtags as cultural products that reflect societal attitudes. The findings indicate a significant shift: from 2012 to 2020, discussions focused on virus awareness and vaccine support; however, from 2020 to 2024, anti-vaccination narratives surged, nearly dominating the conversation. Understanding this evolution is crucial for democracies to develop effective strategies against harmful public health misinformation.

About the speaker:
Dr Lorella Viola is Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities & Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her research, she develops innovative digital humanities methodologies to investigate how power, latent assumptions and implicit ideologies are manifested through language and circulated in media and society. She also researches the impact of the digital transformation of society on knowledge creation theory and practice.

21 - 28 October 2024

Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative: Introduction to Archaeobotany: What plants can tell us about the past

– A RIH Interdisciplinary Initiative

Date: 21 Oct 2024 & 28 Oct 2024
Venue: UCC-C2, T. C. Cheng Building, United College, CUHK

The main event will be a lecture taking place on the 21st Oct (Monday), from 14:30 – 16:15 at UCC-C2, T. C. Cheng Building, United College, CUHK. We are very fortunate to have Prof. Jennifer Bates from Seoul National University to come and share her research on ancient plant remains with us. Participants can also opt to attend a hands-on session (21/10 17:30 – 18:15) and a follow up info session for the practical (28/10 14:30 – 16:15). As usual, the workshop is free and open for all to participate!

8 November 2024

Soviet Cyborgs and Chinese AI : A conversation (Zoom)

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Date: 2024-11-8 (Fri)
Time: 9:00-11:00AM
Mode of event: Online (Zoom link will be provided upon request)

Registration: https://cuhk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrdeGpqDsvEtP0m6N1hVfmjGe-T_OtsLe1

Speakers:
Dr. Vladimir Lukin, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Duke University, specialist in soviet media history.
Prof. Xuenan Cao, Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, critical AI and media scholar.

About the talk:
Posthumanism and the figure of the cyborg are tied to the media history of the US. How would non-Western visions differ?
The talk features two contributions, one on the Soviet Union and another on China, on the scientific developments that inform artificial intelligence today.

Co-organized by the MA in Intercultural Studies Programme, the Centre for Cultural Studies, and the Research Institute for the Humanities, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

18 - 19 October 2024

South Asia in the South China Sea Workshop

A South Asia from Asia Interdisciplinary Initiative event.

Date: 18 & 19 October 2024 (Fri & Sat)
Time: 9;30 am – 6:00 pm
CPD -2.19
Place: Central Podium Levels -Two
Run Run Shaw Tower,
Centennial Campus, HKU
Please click here to register your seat.

7 October 2024

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series – Visual Mindscapes in Computer Simulations: From Canaletto’s Perspective to Molecular Movies

Date: 7 October 2024 (Mon)
Time: 5pm (HKT)
Via Zoom
Language: English

Join Now!

Speaker:
Prof. Daniele Macuglia
Academia for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Department of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Peking University

About the talk:
Since the late 1960s, developments in visualization methods have significantly reshaped how molecular dynamics are conceptualized and understood. This talk examines Martin Karplus’ pioneering role in the implementation of molecular films, which introduced a dynamic element to static images and refined the depiction of atomic interactions. In his conceptual “second equation,” Karplus drew on Canaletto’s perspectival techniques to contribute to the mathematical modeling of molecular processes while enhancing the clarity and depth of computer imaging. Furthermore, the advent of Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD), developed by Klaus Schulten’s team in the mid-1990s and employed by Karplus and his group at Harvard University, marked a transition towards interactive visual tools that facilitated an immersive exploration of molecular structures. The lecture will explore a set of epistemic virtues referred to here as “visual mindscapes,” mental frameworks that foster the co-construction of scientific knowledge in computer simulations. Such a reconfiguration in scientific visualization suggests an expansion of traditional virtues (e.g., mechanical objectivity, trained judgment) to support deeper epistemic engagement with the challenges of contemporary studies across various disciplines where adaptive modeling and real-time computational analysis are actively mobilized to address the behavior of complex natural systems.

About the speaker:
Daniele Macuglia is a historian of science and currently serves as an assistant professor at Peking University, within the Academia for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Department of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. He completed his Ph.D. in the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago in 2017.

30 September 2024

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series – Natural Language Processing in the Humanities in the Age of LLMS

Date: 30 September 2024 (Mon)
Time: 7pm (HKT)
Via Zoom
Language: English

Join Now!

Speaker:
Dr. William Mattingly
Machine Learning Postdoctoral Fellow,
Smithsonian Institution’s Data Science Lab, and
HuggingFace Fellow

About the talk:
Generative machine learning, specifically in the form of large language models (LLMs), has radically changed the natural language processing (NLP) landscape. Over the last three years, we have seen LLMs produce amazing and, sometimes, interesting (?) results. In this talk, we will explore the strengths, but more importantly the limitations of LLMs. What is the role of traditional approaches NLP landscape? Are task-specific machine learning models dated? These are some of the questions we will explore.

About the speaker:
William Mattingly is currently the Machine Learning Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Data Science Lab and a HuggingFace Fellow. He earned his PhD in History in 2020 from the University of Kentucky. He has one book, Python for Digital Humanists and his articles have focused on ethical machine learning, computational approaches to medieval and biblical source material, and multilingual natural language processing. He is the lead machine learning engineer for the NEH-funded Placing the Holocaust project, Co-PI for the Harry Frank Guggenheim-funded Bitter Aloe Project, Co-PI for the twice ACLS-funded Personal Writes the Political project, and PI for Python Tutorials for Digital Humanities.

13 Sep 2024

Can ChatGPT Write?

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Date: 13 September 2024 (Fri)
Time: 14:30 -15:30
Venue: LSB (Lady Shaw Building) LT2

10 September 2024

Practice-as-Research: Producing Knowledge Through Participatory Creative Practice

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project

This research aims to bring together a group of scholars from Fine Arts, Cultural and Religious Studies, and Architecture at CUHK to develop shared interests at the intersections of practice and research, creating social impact through experiments with creative practice (particularly sound art), technology, and urban space. Believing in the innovation and knowledge produced through collaborative creative practice, this project seeks to build an interdisciplinary platform and international network to share experiences and foster discussion on practice-as-research and practice-led research. The research will revolve around the topic of participatory arts in urban spaces, with particular attention to forms of technology-enabled participation.

Project team:

Prof. Frank VIGNERON (Chair & Professor, Department of Fine Arts, CUHK)
Prof. WONG Ashley Lee (Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK)
Prof. YIM Sui Fong (Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, CUHK)
Prof. YIU, Hoi Lam Melody (Research Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, CUHK)

Events

EoP 001: Sound as a Medium for Participation (Friday, 8 November 2024, Eaton HK) more

EoP001.2: Workshop + Reading Group on Sound at Chuen Lung (Thursday, 12 December 2024, Chuen Lung, Tsuen Wan) more

EoP 002: Participatory Spatial Practice: Panel Discussion (Tuesday, 21 January 2025, Online via Zoom) more

EoP003: Technology-Enabled Participation in Artistic Practices (Tuesday, 25 February 2025, Online via Zoom ) more

EoP003: Urban Mapping and Generative AI Workshop and Reading Group (Saturday, 15 March 2025, Mong Kok Flower Market) more

10 September 2024

Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project

This project studies the impact of Generative AI on research culture across a broad spectrum of disciplines. The research group consists of scholars from cultural studies, English, translation, communication, law, mathematics, and computer science. This group originated from an earlier half-day workshop, “Evaluating GenAI,” funded by CRS, the Center for Cultural Studies, and the CUHK library. This workshop provided an occasion for interdisciplinary dialogue: we had a panel of five scholars from computer science, mathematics, law, English, and cultural studies who share knowledge of large language models but contribute to this topic from divergent perspectives. Certain common themes emerged during this workshop, such as what counts as “new” and how AI models claim novel output. This is a major obstacle for developers of AI models and a key question that the humanities are best equipped to address. This project will follow up with an interdisciplinary research group focused on several related topics concerning the impact of generative AI on academic research and pedagogy across the humanities and social sciences.

Project team:

Collier NOGUES (Assistant Professor of English, CUHK)
Jia TAN (Associate Professor of Cultural Studies, CUHK)
Jiji ZHANG (Professor of Philosophy, CUHK)

Can ChatGPT Write?
Speaker: Prof. Xuenan CAO
Date: 13 Sep 2024 (Fri.)
Time: 14:30 – 15:30
Venue: LSB LT2 (Lady Shaw Building)

Soviet Cyborgs and Chinese AI : A conversation
Speakers:
Dr. Vladimir Lukin, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Duke University, specialist in soviet media history.
Prof. Xuenan Cao, Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, critical AI and media scholar.
Date: 8 Nov 2024 (Fri.)
Time: 9:00-11:00AM
Mode of event: Online (Zoom link will be provided upon request)

Registration: https://cuhk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrdeGpqDsvEtP0m6N1hVfmjGe-T_OtsLe1

Learn m ore

Public Humanities: FIH Generative AI Workgroup Invited Speaker Series

Speaker: Yucong Hao (Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University)

Lin Du (Postdoc, National University of Singapore)

Moderator: Xuenan Cao (Assistant Professor, CUHK)

Date: 29 Nov 2024 (Fri.)

Time: 10am – 12pm

Venue: Tse Chiu Kit Room CK TSE (G/F) on the ground floor of the Chung Chi College Library

Please click here to register.
Learn more

Lunch Gathering with Carin Rustema (University of Amsterdam) & Artur C. Jaschke (University of Cambridge)
Starting from 12:00 noon
Venue: Gastronomy Club, 5/F Cheung Yu Tung Building

Learn more

Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines
Date: 11 Apr 2025 (Fri.)
Time: 9am – 6pm
Venue: Room 202 Cheng Yu Tung Building (Near University MTR exit B)
Please click here to register.

Learn more

9 September 2024

Precarious Ecologies in/of Queer Asian Cinemas

Digital Feminisms in Asia Talk Series:

Precarious Ecologies in/of Queer Asian Cinemas

Time: Sep 9, 2024, Monday, 7:30-9:00 pm

Location: ELB LT3, CUHK

This talk will introduce a book project in progress, tentatively titled, Precarious Ecologies in/of Queer Asian Cinemas. Examining films from East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian contexts, the project focuses on those representations of queer living and belonging that lie in the shadow of the now-global rhetoric of LGBTQIA+ identities. Drawing on contemporary decolonial feminist and queer thinking, the talk will lay out the project’s rationale for “Asia as method” as well as its cinematic focus on sexual and gendered marginalization beyond identity politics. Finally, as a case study, the talk will offer a reading of the representation of female sexual subalternity in working-class New Delhi in the experimental ethnography Yeh Freedom Life (dir. Priya Sen, 2018).

Speaker bio:

Prof. Ani Maitra is an associate professor of film and media studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. His research and teaching interests fall at the intersections of postcolonial and diaspora studies, gender and sexuality studies, and global media studies. Maitra is the author of Identity, Mediation, and the Cunning of Capital (Northwestern University Press, 2020).

Moderator: Prof. Jia TAN, CUHK

The event is organized by the MA in Intercultural Studies, and sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK.

9 September 2024

Digital Feminisms in Asia

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project

The advent of digital technology has drastically changed people’s lives in Asia, particularly with the significant emergence of digital feminisms in the arts, culture, and media. This project, Digital Feminisms in Asia, aims to unite established scholars and postgraduate students exploring the intersection of digital technology and feminism into a research network based in Hong Kong. While several scholars within the CUHK Arts Faculty and beyond work on related topics, the interdisciplinary nature of the research project requires a platform to showcase ongoing research, mentor research postgraduate students, develop pedagogy, and engage with the public.

Project team:

TAN Jia (CRS, CUHK)
Sealing CHENG (ANT, CUHK)
Yu-Chieh LI (ART, CUHK)
Lynne NAKANO (JAP, CUHK)
GUO Ting (CRS, CUHK)
CAO Xuenan (CRS, CUHK)
Isaac LEUNG (CUMT, CUHK)
Jacqueline Zhenru LIN (CCS, CUHK)

CUHK Other Faculties

CHOI Susanne Yuk-ping (SOC)
FANG Kecheng (COM)
Han Ling (GDR)

CUHK RPG Students

Cecilia Wong (Program Coordinator)
Yumi Wong
Clayton Lo

Non-CUHK faculty members

Alvin Wong (HKU Comparative Literature)
Yiu-fai Chow (HKBU Humanities)
Denise Tang (Lingnan Cultural Studies)
Iris Po Yee Lo (PolyU Sociology)

Digital Feminisms in Asia: Cultural Studies Postgraduate Symposium
Date: 14 November 2025
Time: 2:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Venue: SWH 1 (G/F), Fung King Hey Building, CUHK
Convenor: Cecilia Ka Hei Wong

Precarious Ecologies in/of Queer Asian Cinemas
Speaker: Prof. Ani Maitra, Associate professor of film and media studies. Colgate University in Hamilton, NY
Moderator: Prof. Jia TAN, CUHK
Time: Sep 9, 2024, Monday, 7:30-9:00 pm
Location: ELB LT3, CUHK

This talk will introduce a book project in progress, tentatively titled, Precarious Ecologies in/of Queer Asian Cinemas. Examining films from East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian contexts, the project focuses on those representations of queer living and belonging that lie in the shadow of the now-global rhetoric of LGBTQIA+ identities. Drawing on contemporary decolonial feminist and queer thinking, the talk will lay out the project’s rationale for “Asia as method” as well as its cinematic focus on sexual and gendered marginalization beyond identity politics. Finally, as a case study, the talk will offer a reading of the representation of female sexual subalternity in working-class New Delhi in the experimental ethnography Yeh Freedom Life (dir. Priya Sen, 2018).

The event is organized by the MA in Intercultural Studies, and sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK.

Digital Feminism in China: Censorship and Expression
中國數字女性主義:審查與表達
Speaker: Prof. Jia TAN, CUHK
Date: 24 Oct 2024 (Thu)
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Venue: G24, KKB, CUHK

Echoes from Tomorrow: Contemporary Women’s Digital Filmmaking in Cambodia
Speaker: Dr. Philippa Lovatt, University of St Andrews, UK
Moderator: Prof. Jia Tan, CUHK
Date: Wed., Dec 4, 2024
Time: 5-6:30pm
Venue: LT8 (2/F), Yasumoto International Academic Park, CUHK
Click here to register and learn more

When Fans Meet AI: A Feminist Ethics of Care for Participatory Culture in Digital Asia

Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2024

Time: 2:30-4pm

Venue: LPN_LT (G/F), Y C Liang Hall (LHC), The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Prof. Eva Cheuk-Yin LI, Lancaster University

Moderator: Prof. Jia TAN, CUHK
Click here to learn more

3 September 2024

Notice of Temporary Relocation

3 - 5 September 2024

Reflection: UK-China Higher Education Young Talent Alliance 2024 Student Conference

by Guangxiang Leon Liu (刘广祥)
PhD Candidate in Applied English Linguistics, Department of English, CUHK

The UK-China Higher Education Young Talent Alliance (HEYTA) 2024 Student Conference at the University of Exeter (3 – 5 September 2024, UK) was a transformative experience that broadened my horizons and challenged my perspectives. Over three intense days, I engaged with 40 talented students from top universities in the UK and China, exploring themes of Interconnectivity, Interculturality, AI & Technology, and UN Sustainable Development Goals. One of the most enriching aspects of the conference was the opportunity to collaborate with students from the University of Exeter. Together, we developed and presented on “Social class, educational inequity, and unequal digital literacies surrounding AI”. This project pushed me to critically examine the intersection of technology and social issues in education, a theme that resonated throughout the conference. In addition, the sessions on AI in Education were particularly eye-opening. I gained valuable insights into the potential of AI to personalize learning experiences as well as the importance of ensuring equitable access to AI-enhanced education. Another profound learning experience came from the discussions on decolonizing education. These sessions challenged me to confront the persistent colonial legacies in our educational systems and inspired a commitment to promoting diverse perspectives in my academic journey.

Throughout the conference, the importance of international collaboration in addressing global challenges was a recurring theme. Engaging with peers from diverse backgrounds not only expanded my cultural understanding but also reinforced the value of cross-cultural dialogue in problem-solving. As I reflect on this experience, I’m struck by how much it has shaped my academic and personal outlook – The conference has not only deepened my understanding of the complex interplay between technology, education, and social equity but also fostered a network of like-minded peers committed to driving positive change. Moving forward, I’m eager to build on these insights, stay connected with the HEYTA community, and apply what I’ve learned to make a meaningful impact in my academic and professional pursuits. This conference has been a catalyst for growth, equipping me with new perspectives and a reinvigorated sense of purpose as I navigate the complexities of our global educational landscape.

Conference history

HEYTA is the student conference of UKCHA that, since its establishment in 2016, has held multiple conferences, exchanges, and events among scholars, making significant social impact. To expand academic discussion and cooperation in the student community, HEYTA was initiated in 2019, exploring ways for students to engage in humanities and social sciences-related conversations between the UK and China. In April 2019, the first HEYTA event was successfully held at Tsinghua University, Beijing, with delegates engaging in a range of visits, lectures, and workshops which promoted intercultural exchange in humanities and social science disciplines. From 2020 to 2023, the University of Exeter and Tsinghua University have successfully organised in turn four virtual and face-to-face events to foster valuable dialogue between young people across the two countries.

After the Covid-19 period, HEYTA 2023 also took place at the University of Tsinghua in Beijing, China, and was attended by 16 students from a range of UK universities (University of Exeter; University of Oxford; University of Warwick; University of Manchester; University College London and SOAS University of London) – alongside students from major Chinese universities, including Tsinghua and Fudan. Students attended a series of lectures, cultural activities, and visits to the Forbidden City, local museums, and art galleries, and we were introduced to the Chinese culture.

3 - 5 September 2024

Reflection: UK-China Higher Education Young Talent Alliance 2024 Student Conference

by Jinjin ZHANG
PhD Candidate in Japanese Studies, CUHK

The HEYTA Forum 2024 (3- 5 Sep 2024, University of Exter, UK) was a highly rewarding experience, aligning perfectly with my research interests in interconnectivity, digital transformation, and sustainability. Collaborating with peers from diverse fields such as economics, engineering, media studies, and anthropology, we delivered an insightful presentation on AI regulations from a social constructivist perspective. This sparked a valuable dialogue on the critical challenges we face in our increasingly digital world.

The forum also provided an excellent platform for exchanging insights with UK scholars, where I shared findings from my ethnographic work in Japan and China. It was fascinating to observe how our research converged despite focusing on different contexts. I also learned a great deal from academic role models who were not only intellectually productive but also highly skilled at engaging diverse audiences and exploring creative, non-traditional academic writing.

The social activities, from beach walks to a cathedral visit and dinner dancing, made the event even more memorable, deepening my understanding of British culture. I left the forum feeling inspired, well-connected, and excited about future collaborations with UK scholars.

Conference history

3 - 5 September 2024

Reflection: UK-China Higher Education Young Talent Alliance 2024 Student Conference

HEYTA 2024: A Memorable Academic Feast

By Xiao Yiyang
Year 2, PhD in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, CUHK

HEYTA 2024 was an incredibly enjoyable and fruitful experience, thanks to the University of Exeter’s excellent organization. We partook in an academic feast covering diverse topics, from artificial intelligence to heritage education and sustainable development goals.

The event fostered collaboration and friendship among students from British universities and other Chinese institutions. Our presentations struck a balance between academic rigor and public accessibility, aiming to convey our thoughts through an interdisciplinary lens.

The organizers provided rich cultural experiences, including a Scottish social dance and a trip to the seaside town of Exmouth. While ensuring the conference agenda stayed on track, they also allowed us ample freedom to explore, including city walks.

These few days in Exeter were undoubtedly the most unforgettable of my 2024. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Chinese University of Hong Kong for their sponsorship and for offering me this precious opportunity to attend HEYTA 2024.

29 August 2024

New Fellows in 2024

Please join us to welcome Dr. Angel Nayden, Dr. Anna Sehnalova and Dr. Daphné Sterk.

I am delighted to announce that three new Postdoctoral Fellows have joined the Research Institute for the Humanities this summer. They are Angel Nayden, Daphné Sterk, and Anna Sehnalova. During their two-year fellowships, they will be working on their own research projects, participating in the life of the Faculty, and developing research collaborations beyond the Faculty and the University.

Dr. Nayden comes to us with a background in social anthropology. After being awarded his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2023, Angel was a teaching assistant in political anthropology at Sofia University, Bulgaria, and a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Meanwhile, with an interest in Chinese museum studies and art history, Dr. Sterk earned her PhD in Art History at the Sorbonne in Paris. Her thesis was titled “Genesis and development of the first Chinese museums: heritage, scientific and aesthetic issues (1860-1949)”.

Finally, Dr. Sehnalova is a scholar of Tibetan culture in general, and religion, ritual, and medicine in particular. She holds two doctorates, the first in Asian Studies from Charles University, Prague, awarded in 2018, and a second in Anthropology from the University of Oxford, awarded in 2024.

I would also like to congratulate Dr. Anran Wang, who joined RIH as a Postdoctoral Fellow last year and is now moving to Korea University in Seoul to take up a professorship in Chinese Studies in the new academic year.

Please join me in wishing Anran all the best in his new endeavor and welcoming our new fellows. I know Angel, Daphné, and Anna will be valuable additions to the Faculty of Arts, and I encourage you to reach out and introduce yourselves, as well as to learn more about their research and current projects.

David Huddart
Director, Research Institute for the Humanities
Chinese University of Hong Kong

12 -16 August 2024

Beyond the Oxford DH Summer School: A Journey of Discovery

Study

During the summer session at Oxford University, they offered four courses this summer. However, I was disappointed to find that there wasn’t a 3-D modeling course offered. As a result, I opted to delve into a new area and participated in the TEI course. TEI is a program that allows for the digitization of documents. After completion, the code for the document can be shared with scholars worldwide for research purposes. The course has provided me with valuable insights. Digitizing a document with TEI is a complex task that may span several months. Despite its challenges, I acknowledge the convenience it offers. Scholars translate ancient manuscripts before digitizing them with TEI and sharing the code worldwide. In contrast, research of this nature is scarce in East Asia. Notably, a considerable amount of excavated ancient Chinese materials could benefit from TEI digitization, yet this undertaking demands substantial financial and temporal investments, presenting a formidable challenge.

City landscape

Apart from the educational aspect at Oxford University, it presents a fantastic chance to engage in the lifestyle of a historic city. The picturesque landscapes and cultural allure of Oxford make for truly invaluable experiences.

Challenge

Mastering TEI is a demanding endeavor, especially considering the complexity of understanding its mechanisms in a mere week. Moreover, my experience in this course has been notably challenging. Among predominantly local and European participants, I stand out as the only Asian attendee. Their willingness to share knowledge, ask questions, and engage in discussions with instructors is admirable and fosters a rich learning environment.

Inspiration

After a week of immersive learning and living, I have gained new insights and aspirations for the future. In my academic pursuits, my goal is to incorporate the experiences from this week into the potential and impact of my research projects. This international experience underscores the various paths and opportunities that life can offer. Sometimes, a person’s current position may not align with their dreams, indicating that growth and fulfillment could be found elsewhere. Therefore, seizing opportunities may be the key to significant changes in one’s life.

12 -16 August 2024

My Experience at the OxDH Summer School 2024: From Text to Tech

by Laurent LAM Pung Pan
Year 2 MPhil student in Chinese Language and Literature, CUHK

Attending the Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School (DHOxSS) from August 12-16, 2024, was a transformative experience. The workshop, “From Text to Tech,” provided invaluable insights into Natural Language Processing (NLP) using Python. Participants engaged in hands-on activities, learning how to process and analyze humanities textual data effectively.

One highlight was the evening welcome drinks reception, where we connected with fellow participants and shared ideas during a lively poster session.

Beyond the workshops, the beautiful surroundings of Oxford added to the experience, from the stunning Oxford University Press to the serene Triton Fountain in Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. This summer school not only enhanced my technical skills but also fostered a community of passionate individuals eager to advance digital humanities. I’m excited to apply what I learned to future research endeavors!

1 September 2024

RIH Interdisciplinary Collaborative Projects 2024-2025

RIH is delighted to announce the awarded Interdisciplinary Collaborative Projects 2024-2025. Each project will receive up to HK$150,000 to cover the costs of organizing any of a wide variety of activities.

– Archaeological Science in Hong Kong
– Digital Feminisms in Asia
– Practice as Research: Producing Knowledge Through Participatory Creative Practice, and
– What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines

Congratulations!

31 July 2024

Exploration of Microscopic World of Artifacts: XRF and SEM-EDS

An Archaeological Science in HK interdisciplinary initiative event –

Exploration of Microscopic World of Artifacts: XRF & SEM-EDS

Speaker: Prof. LAM Weng Cheong, CUHK (HIS, ANT)

Date: 31 July 2024 (Wed)
Time: 2 – 5 pm
Lecture: 2 – 3 pm @ NAH401, New Asia College
Workshop: 3:15 – 5pm @ 1/F Science Center North Block

(31 July 2024, CUHK) “Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative” hosted their fifth public workshop on 31st July. The workshop titled Exploration of Microscopic World of Artifacts: XRF and SEM-EDS, was headed by Prof. Lam Weng Cheong of the Departments of Anthropology and History. During the workshop, Prof. Lam first delivered an enthralling introduction on how to use different scientific instruments to examine the compositions of ancient metal artefacts, then took the participants to the Physics Department and showed them first-hand how a SEM-EDS works. The event has attracted attendees from a wide array of backgrounds, including students, researchers, practitioners, and general public.

14 June 2024

3D Printed Museum Exhibition @ University Library’s MakerSpace

The RIH is committed to promoting and enhancing the rich and vibrant learning experience for the members of the Faculty of Arts.

On the Day of Digital Humanities this year, we are proud to present the ‘Hong Kong in the 60s & 70s – 3D Printed Museum Competition.’ This competition has been designed to shine a light on the creativity and 3D printing techniques of humanities students, with funding and technical support provided by the University Library’s Learning Support team.

Please come and visit the 3D Printed Museum Exhibition from today until June 16, 2024, at the MakerSpace located on the lower ground floor of the University Library. Enjoy and celebrate the passion for DH arts showcased by the competition finalists, who are RPg students in the Department of History and the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, as well as some Anthropology undergraduate students’ 3D scanning and printing coursework (ANTH2710/5710).

Congratulations to the 3D Printed Museum Competition finalists:
Winner:
Sign of the City: Neon and Calligraphy Signboards in Hong Kong (WONG Kam Pang, Year 2, PhD in Chinese Language & Literature; LAM Pung Pan, Year 2, MPhil in Chinese Language & Literature; TSOI Ching Ching, Year 1, MPhil in Chinese Language & Literature)

Prizes: $1,500 Commercial Press book vouchers and $2,500 worth of 3D printing credits at MakerSpace, CUHK University Library

1st runner-up:
Epoch Chronicles (TICAO, Mar Lorence Gamboa, Year 1, MPhil in History; WANG, Shu, Year 1, MPhil in History)

Prize: $1,000 Commercial Press book vouchers

2nd runner-up:
Neon cFu (HUANG Xiadong, Cory, Year 1, PhD in History; HO Wing Yan, Winnie, Year 2, MPhil in History; LIU Jiayan, Laurie, Year 2, PhD in History)

Prize: $500 Commercial Press book vouchers

2 June 2024

Glass Artefacts and the Maritime Trade – Archaeological Glass from South China Sea Coast and HK Collection

An Interdisciplinary Archaeological Science in Hong Kong Initiative:
Glass Artefacts and the Maritime Trade – Archaeological Glass from South China Sea Coast and HK Collection

Date: Sunday, 2 June 2024
Time: 14:00 – 16:30
Place: G/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU (Sai Ying Pun)

We are honoured to have Dr. Kuan-Wen Wang from the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, to come and share her research on ancient glass with us. This event will take the form of a lecture and workshop, and will take place on the 2nd of June (Sunday) from 14:00 – 16:30 at G/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU (Sai Ying Pun). As usual, the workshop is free and is open for all to participate! However, due to limited capacity of the classroom, we can only accept 25 participants. Please register using the link provided below. In case of over-registration, priority is given on a “first-come, first-serve” basis.

Registration link: https://bit.ly/glassevent

20 May 2024

Day of Digital Humanities 2024

Date: 20 May 2024
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Place: Digital Scholarship Lab, G/F University Library, CUHK

Reserve your spot now—space is limited! Online reservation

Speakers and Programmes

Paul Spence, Reader, Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
Prof. Javier Cha, Digital Humanities in the Department of History, HKU
Prof. Wilkinson Gonzales, Department of English, CUHK
3D Printed Museum Competition prize presentation
Digital scholarship project and services introduction
MakerSpace tour
Lunch will be provided for full-day participants.

Please click the ebrochure for full details

15 April 2024

An Ayurvedic Pill for COVID-19: Media Discourse on alternative Treatments during the Pandemic in India

A South Asia from Asia Interdisciplinary Initiatives event

In this talk, Dr. Khalikova presents the findings of a joint research project that examined India’s media discourse on Coronil- a contentious drug launched as an ayurvedic treatment for COVID-19. The examination of four national English-language newspapers in India shows the lack of depth and critical analysis in the reporting on Coronil, which as considerable socioeconomic and public health implications. Some members of the government, judiciary, and media adopted the rhetoric of populist medical pluralism, embedded in the Hindu nationalist discourse justifying the endorsement of Coronil in terms of the neoliberal economy of ‘choices’ of the Indian people and their ‘need’ for homegrown treatments, thus shifting the blame for the health crisis from the state to the citizens. The green light given to Coronil confounded the government’s scientific communication during the pandemic leading to confusing messaging about the cause and treatments of COVID-19.

Speaker: Dr. Venera R. Khalikova, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Date: 15 April 2024 (Mon)
Time: 2:00 -4:00 pm
Venue: Leung Kau Kui Building LG7, CUHK

Please click here to register: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13686265

About the speaker

Dr. Venera R. Khalikova is a cultural anthropologist who studies how people’s sense of belonging influences their decisions about health, work, and migration. Focusing on doctors on alternative medicine in India and Indian highly skilled migrants in Hong Kong, Khalikova examines the role of citizenship, religion, gender, class and ethnoracial affiliation in people’s everyday acts and practices.

5 & 6 December 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS: Urban Mediations: International Conference on the Narratives, Ecologies, and Poetics of the City (HK, 5-6 Dec. 2024)

Urban Mediations: International Conference on the Narratives, Ecologies, and Poetics of the City (Hong Kong, 5-6 December 2024)

City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, 5 December 2024

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, 6 December 2024

This international, interdisciplinary conference aims to uncover emergent frameworks and methods for the interpretation and analysis of literary, filmic, and cultural texts relating to the profound transformation of cities around the world across the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Our starting point for discussion is cities in Asia and their dialogues with different cities in the world. While “urban” typically denotes a geographical location and its inhabitants, we use it to indicate a process and practice of co-existence. The urban, in this sense, is informed by socio-cultural, economic, ecological, political, and technological processes that may appear or aspire to be global but that are, in fact, diversely lived and experienced.

The framework “urban mediations” offers a way of thinking about “the urban” not as a bounded, stable object, but as an intermediary agency that is both specific to a particular milieu and connected to people and processes elsewhere. “Mediation” extends recent work on urban infrastructure – the physical systems of connectivity that keep cities moving – to include the social, affective, aesthetic, and material relations that bind the urban to itself and to myriad elsewheres. For Lauren Berlant (2022: 22), infrastructure “is another way of talking about mediation—but always as a material process of binding, never merely as a material technology, aesthetic genre, form, or norm that achieves something.” Like the urban, mediation “is not a stable thing but a way of seeing the unstable relations among dynamically related things.”

Asia is a rich, highly diverse region that can be used as a focal point for exploring the uneven, often unpredictable mediations that constitute urban life. Many of the cities in the region emerged, or were shaped by, what Lasse Heerten (2021:351) describes as the “first globalisation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries…the heyday of colonial Empire and steam technologies.” The enhanced interconnectivity, especially since the nineteenth century, has contributed to the circulation of things, objects, ideas, and, for Su Lin Lewis (2016:140), the formation of the “cosmopolitan publics” and “print-worlds,” which often intersect with those that exist in cities and regions in different parts of the world in both physical and symbolic terms. The contradictions, tension, and the co-existence of opportunities and challenges in cities have become sources of inspiration for writers and artists across the world and historical periods to represent, reveal, and respond to different topical issues and conflicts.

Scholarship on Asian cities tends to be framed within a discourse of economic development. On the one hand, studies have highlighted how cities in the region have been and will become key drivers of economic growth in our urban future, with Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore as long-standing economic hubs and emerging cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Jakarta, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi as sites of more recent investment and development. On the other hand, many of these same cities are challenged by issues of overdevelopment, such as congestion, pollution, overcapacity, hyperinflation, extreme weather, aging populations, and shifting demographics.

Other scholars, such as Abdoulmaliq Simone (2004, 2010, 2022), Asef Bayat (2000,2013), Ravi Sundaram (2009), and Ara Wilson (2016), have written about how informality in urban environments affords agency to urban residents who are dispossessed of resources and livelihoods because of poverty or displacement. Divested of access to suitable infrastructures because of government corruption or ineptness, residents, across different historical and social contexts, have explored ways to improvise, poach, or hack obsolete or damaged technologies by collaborating with each other. These creative practices of inhabiting the city have been echoed in the work of writers, filmmakers, architects, and artists who have experimented with new forms of collaboration, aesthetics, and community within and across cities for the past two centuries.

As such, issues relating to urban environments, in Asia and elsewhere, are not simply issues of policy planning and resource management but require new ideas from the arts and humanities to comprehend the epistemological, cultural, and ecological impact of rapid urban changes. We hope that by exchanging thoughts and asking questions together we can develop new critical and creative frameworks that engage with different historical moments, address the challenges facing our urban futures, and shed light on the possibilities and practices that exist within the present.

Interdisciplinary in focus, our conference invites participants from both the humanities and social sciences working with texts and practices across historical periods and cultural contexts, from a diversity of disciplines and subfields including literature, film and media studies, architecture, geography, urban studies, gender studies, and anthropology. Participants interested in exploring intersections with gender, race, indigeneity; migration and the circulation of things, cultural texts, ideas, people, information; climate, ecology, and the nonhuman; and Asian urban practices and poetics are especially welcome.

We are looking for papers that address the following questions:

How might literary works, film, architecture, and other poetic practices mediate, negotiate, or interrogate urban relations and the built environment?
How can creative and critical practices reveal, mediate, or challenge various forms of inequalities and respond to questions surrounding gender, race, religion, class, labour, and humans’ relationship with animals and nature?
How can microhistories of cities, municipalities, districts, and neighborhoods offer a more nuanced view of specific milieux or challenge grand narratives of development and globalisation?
In what ways do cities narrate themselves? What stories can be read in the topography, design, and composition of their built environments?
How do imagination and memory shape and mediate the urban experience, or re-create the materiality of the cityscape?
How have colonialism’s cultural and historical legacies shaped the urban form and the environmental conditions of cities?
How might “archipelagic thinking” reconfigure how we imagine urban regions characterised by city clusters or interconnected metropolitan centres?
How do imaginaries of failed or fragile infrastructures reveal fissures in a world system built on the uninterrupted flow of capital, bodies, and goods?
How might an expanded understanding of infrastructure – not simply as a physical system of connectivity and flow but as the affective, aesthetic, and material relations that bind together social life – enable new conceptualisations of the urban?
How might feminist and queer literatures, films, and artistic works challenge the masculinist and heteronormative assumptions inherent in dominant frameworks of migration, economic development, and the urban?
How might we rethink our participation in the technological assemblages that comprise urban life and that mediate our access to the city, to other inhabitants, and to places elsewhere?

Kindly send a proposal with a 400-500-word abstract and a one-page CV to urbanmediations24@gmail.com by 15 May 2024. As the goal is to produce an edited volume, accepted papers are expected to represent new, unpublished work.

The final session on day 2 will involve 3 parallel workshops to be led by discussants on emergent topics about urban mediations open to early career scholars.

An optional walking tour of sites in Hong Kong will be organized on 7 December. Please check the conference website (https://urbannarrativesnetwork.com/urban-mediations-2024/) for updates on the workshops and the walking tour.

This conference is co-organized by City University of Hong Kong, Department of English; The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Research Institute for the Humanities, Centre for Cultural Studies & MA in Intercultural Studies Programme, Departments of English and Cultural and Religious Studies; University of Hong Kong, Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures in the Department of Comparative Literature.

Conference convenors:

Elmo Gonzaga (CUHK)

Klaudia Lee (CityU)

Joanna Mansbridge (CUHK)

Alvin K. Wong (HKU)

2 April 2024

Seeking Sisterhood: Travel Writing, Asia, and the Search for Muslim Women’s Solidarity in Colonial India

A South Asia from Asia Interdisciplinary Initiatives event

Muslim women in India began to compose and publish travel accounts from the early twentieth century. Largely written in Urdu, their travelogues reveal a burst of fascination with the lives and practices of Muslim women from other regions of the world. The advent of this literature coincided with the emergence of new forms of Indian Muslim aspiration that sought to create affective links with their coreligionists abroad. As Muslim philosophers and politicians in India began to see themselves as part of something they were beginning to call the “Muslim world,” India’s women travelers produced their own imaginations of that world, not only by theorizing the nature of pan-regional Islamic links, but also by making them tangible through first-person narrative. And yet, their aspirational Muslim unity was ultimately fractured by class- and race-based discrimination. This talk considers how Indian Muslim women’s travel writing eagerly sought out sisterhood with Muslim women from across Asia, while simultaneously declining to extend to those women a full membership in their aspirational “Muslim World.”

Speaker: Dr. Daniel Majchrowicz
Assistant Professor of South Asian Literature and Culture, Northwestern University
Date: 2 April 2024 (Tue)

Time: 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Venue: KKB, LG7, CUHK

To register, please click this link https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13685166

About the speaker:

Daniel Majchrowicz is a scholar of modern South Asian literature and history with a special interest in Islam, mobility, and gender. His work broadly examines how South Asian literary traditions, particularly popular traditions, inhabit the world, with a focus on links between India, Asia, and Africa. He teaches at Northwestern University and is the author of The World in Words: Travel Writing and the Global Imagination in Muslim South Asia (2023) and A Journey to Mecca and London: The Travels of an Indian Muslim Woman, 1909-1910 (2024), and co-editor of Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women (2022).

19 March 2024

Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York

A South Asia from Asia Interdisciplinary Initiatives event was held on 19th March, featuring Dr. Tina Shrestha discussing her new monograph, titled “Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York” Dr. Shrestha, an academic author and ethnographer affiliated with Waseda University, explored the production of migrant labor and suffering through asylum enforcement in her book. Additionally, she delved into the cultural logic of suffering and provided a fresh perspective on this form of precarious labor. It’s worth noting that her book received an honorable mention for the 2023 Shelley Fisher Fishkin Book Prize.

Speaker: Dr. Tina Shrestha (Waseda University)

Date: Tuesday, 19 March 2024

Time: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Venue: Leung Kau Kui Building, LG7, CUHK

3 September 2024

HEYTA (Higher Education Young Talent Alliance) 2024

RIH cordially invites research postgraduate (RPg) students in the Faculty of Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to apply for sponsorship for HEYTA 2024 forum (Higher Education Young Talent Alliance 2024).

HEYTA 2024 will be held from 3 – 5 September 2024, at the University of Exeter, UK. It aims to enhance academic exchanges among young humanities students from universities in China and the UK and cultivate their future-oriented global competencies, as well as their capabilities for cross-cultural exchange and cooperation. RIH will sponsor a number of RPg students from the Faculty of Arts at CUHK to attend the forum.

Themes of the 2024 Forum

Interconnectivity and Interculturality (互联性与跨文化性)
AI, Technology and the Post-Knowledge World (人工智能、科学技术与后知识时代 )
Sustainable Development Goals (可持续发展目标)

This scholarship will provide travel support (registration, flights, and accommodation) to the awardees to attend the HEYTA 2024.

Eligibility:

CUHK Faculty of Arts MPhil & PhD student
Fluent in English, capable of using English for presentations and discussions
Submit a post-event report highlighting the significance you have gained from the forum.

Registration link: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13685182
Application closing date: 31 March 2024

For inquiries, please send an email to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk or contact the RIH office at 3943 4786

About the UK-China Higher Education Humanities Alliance (UKCHA) and HEYTA

The UK-China Higher Education Humanities Alliance (UKCHA) was initiated by Tsinghua University and established in Shanghai in December 2016. It is committed to promoting cooperation and development in research and education in the humanities field between Chinese and British universities. So far, it has grown to 17 alliance member universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Wuhan University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai International Studies University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, University of Exeter, King’s College London, Loughborough University, Needham Research Institute – University of Cambridge, School of Oriental and African Studies – University of London, University College London, University of Manchester, Oxford University China Center, University of Reading and University of Warwick.

Since its establishment in 2016, the Alliance has organized numerous academic conferences and exchange activities, making positive contributions to promoting academic exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK. To further expand academic discussions, exchanges, and cooperation among student groups, the Alliance has been hosting the Youth Student Forum Exchange (HEYTA) since 2019, aiming to explore opportunities for students to engage in dialogues between Chinese and British humanities and social sciences.

In April 2019, the first HEYTA event was successfully held at Tsinghua University. Representatives conducted a series of visits, lectures, and seminars to discuss the protection and development of the humanities. From 2020 to 2022, the University of Exeter and Tsinghua University organized three successful online events. In 2023, the event returned to an offline format, facilitating valuable dialogues among young individuals from both countries. The specific activities were as follows:

2019 – hosted by Tsinghua University (Beijing): Exploring Beauty in Humanities and Innovation, Bridging the Communication between China and the UK.
2020 – hosted by the University of Exeter (online): Digital Humanities and Special Collections, Intercultural Communications, Theatre and Performance, and International Cultural Exchange.
2021 – hosted by Tsinghua University (online): Digital Humanities, Studies of Eastern and Western Plays, and Comparative Literature.
2022 – hosted by the University of Exeter (online): Rewriting Modernities: Literature, Historiography And Translating Cultures.
2023 – hosted by Tsinghua University (Beijing): Exploring the History, Recounting the Blending of Civilizations.

About the themes of HEYTA 2024

1. Interconnectivity and Interculturality
Interculturality includes dynamic and evolving relationships between groups that include exchange and dialogue – with an acknowledgment that the purpose of interculturality is transformed relationships that work towards a just, equal, and plural society. This involves significant challenges. Intercultural competence is increasingly emphasised as a critical skill, and it is now part of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test. Embracing interculturality is more than just coexistence; it is about promoting mutual respect, understanding and appreciation of different cultures and traditions. This theme encourages embracing rich cultural diversity. In today’s interconnected world, it is crucial to equip individuals with intercultural competence so that they can navigate the complexities of multicultural interactions with sensitivity and openness. Interconnectivity refers to the complex network of links between elements like people, cultures, economies, and technologies, where they mutually influence one another. This interdependence surpasses geographical and cultural limits, underscoring the interconnected nature of our global society. It forms the basis for understanding the intricate web of connections in our increasingly globalized world. Together, these concepts encourage a global perspective that values cultural diversity and promotes collaboration and understanding among people from different parts of the world.

2. AI, Technology, and the Post-Knowledge World
In today’s era of rapid technological advancement, the traditional methods of knowledge dissemination, acquisition, and verification are undergoing profound changes. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation not only enhances human capabilities but also reshapes the fundamental nature of the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. Therefore, we need to conduct interdisciplinary exploration, deeply explore the intricate ethical dilemmas brought by artificial intelligence, think about the democratization of knowledge promoted by digital platforms, and examine the dynamic evolution between humans and machines and other urgent issues that need to be resolved.

3. Sustainable Development Goals
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and social inequalities must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health, wellbeing and education, and further social justice aims – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. SDGs span across humanities, social and natural sciences and weaken the boundaries between disciplines thus encouraging interdisciplinary work. They also offer opportunities for critical debates about the priorities they set and their underlying ideas. This is especially when SDGs are explored from a perspective that challenges western-centred thinking and values and embraces wider views about the ways we understand the interplay between local and global challenges. Possible topics include inclusion; gender equality; social justice; sustainable development; wellbeing; climate change; peace; the relationship between local and global; and (alternative) globalisation.

4 & 8 March 2024

What you eat: applications of biochemical methods in archaeology

A two-day workshop titled “What You Eat: Applications of Biochemical Methods in Archaeology”, organized by the Archaeological Science in HK interdisciplinary initiative, was held on the 4th and 8th of March 2024 at CUHK. The workshop attracted over 30 participants from various departments across HK, including students and scholars from Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Cultural and Religious Studies, Philosophy, Public Health, and more. After an introduction to the basic principles of the method, participants prepared their own hair for stable isotope analysis and learned to use the program R to plot their data. We then had an exciting discussion on the meaning of the data and how it can help us understand the food practices of a society. The generated data will also be used for a student’s FYP!

26 February 2024

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series – From Digitization to Graphesis: Digital Humanities and Digital Heritage

Date: 26 February 2024 (Monday)
Time: 5 pm (HKT)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Prof. Chen Jing陈静
Associate Professor
School of Arts, Nanjing University

About the talk:
This lecture aims to re-examine the concept of ‘heritage’ from the perspective of digital humanities. The speaker will present several digital humanities projects conducted by their team over the past few years as case studies. These projects include cross-disciplinary research on Chinese traditional color, image analysis of artificial objects using computer vision algorithms, and digital curation based on metadata. Through these examples, the lecture will illustrate how digital technology, from digitization to visual knowledge production (referred to as ‘graphesis’ by Johanna Drucker), has reshaped our understanding and epistemology of heritage.

About the speaker:
Prof. Chen Jing 陈静 is an Associate Professor at the School of Arts, Nanjing University, and a founding member of the Innovation Center for Digital Humanities Research at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Social Science and Humanities, Nanjing University. Her current research interests lie in Digital Art and Digital Humanities, with a particular focus on visual knowledge production using digital technology. She has published essays in both Chinese and English and curated exhibitions featuring painting, VR artworks, and Generative Art.

19 February 2024

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series – Open Digital Humanities

Date: 19 February 2024 (Monday)
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 pm (HKT)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Prof. Paul Arthur
Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences,
Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

About the talk:
Open scholarship, or unrestricted access to scholarly research and resources, is a topic of significant public, policy, and government concern, as illustrated by numerous national and international statements. Over the past two decades, opportunities have emerged to expand open scholarship and reshape the longstanding tradition of publishing research in closed formats, encouraging more accessible, participatory, interactive, ethical, and transparent approaches, that reach far broader and more diverse publics. This talk addresses the need for fundamental research to underpin and guide strategic transformation of national and international open scholarship policies into practice for the humanities.

About the speaker:
Paul Arthur is Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Research Fellow and Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. He speaks and publishes on major challenges and changes facing 21st-century society, from the global impacts of technology on communication, culture and identity to migration and human rights.

20 May 2024

3-D Printed Museum Competition Shortlisted Teams Announcement

RIH announces 3 shortlisted proposals of the 3-D Printed Museum Competition

The Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) has announced the three shortlisted proposals for the first edition of the 3-D Printed Museum Competition. This competition aims to explore the creativity of students utilizing cutting-edge 3-D technologies for humanities scholarship.

The three shortlisted teams will receive one-on-one 3-D printing training workshops at the University Library’s MakerSpace. Their 3-D printed pieces will be displayed at the University Library and will compete for the grand prize. As part of the award, each team will participate in the Day of Digital Humanities on 20 May 2024, to give a short presentation about their work.

The three proposals were selected by a panel composed of representatives from the RIH and the University Library. The selection was based on criteria such as the use of 3-D printed and scanned technologies, creativity, relevance of the theme, scalability potential, and feasibility, among others.

The shortlisted proposals are:

Neon Cfu, by HUANG Xiadong, Cory (Year 1, PhD in History), HO Wing Yin, Winnie (Year 2, MPhil in History) and LIU Jiayan, Laurie (Year 2, PhD in History)

Epoch Chronicles, by TICAO, Mar Lorence Gamboa (Year 1, History) and WANG Shu (Year 1, History)

Sign of the City: Neon and Calligraphy Signboards in Hong Kong, by WONG Kam Pang (Year 2, PhD in Chinese Language and Literature), LAM Pung Pan (Year 2, MPhil in Chinese Language and Literature) and TSOI Ching Ching (Year 1, MPhil in Chinese Language and Literature)

The 3-D Printed Museum Competition is one of RIH’s Digital Humanities Initiatives aimed at fostering innovation in humanities studies. The winners of the competition will be announced on the Day of Digital Humanities, which will take place on 20 May 2024, at the University Library.

Congratulations to the shortlisted teams and thank you to everyone who applied.

2 February 2024

Postgraduate Career Development Workshop – Success on the Job Market: Interviews & Teaching Demonstrations

Success on the job market: Interviews and teaching demonstrations

Date: 2 February 2024 (Friday)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Venue: YIA LT4 (2/F)
Eligibility: CUHK postgraduate students
Reserve a spot

‘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 may be invited to an interview and, possibly, to give a teaching demonstration. Join us for this 90-minute session during which two of our young assistant professors in the early stages of their careers, Prof. Chen Jizhou Jannis, and Prof. Sheng Yihui from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, will 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 sharing session by Profs. Chen and Sheng, followed by a 30-minute Q&A.

All are welcome!

31 January 2024

Interdisciplinary Lecture Series: Contemporary Fiction and The Pictorial Turn by Prof. Neil Murphy

Speaker: Prof. Neil Murphy, Department of English, CUHK

Date: 31 January 2024 (Wed)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Venue: CYT LT5, 3/F Cheng Yu Tung Building, CUHK (University Station exit B)

Please click here to reserve your seat.

About the lecture:

In this interdisciplinary talk, Prof Murphy will discuss the impact of the “pictorial turn” identified by W. J. T Mitchell in the 20th century. It analyses how selected contemporary novels have responded to a proliferation of images in modern society and demonstrates how they incorporate visual encounters in their narratives, exemplifying a deep intermedial integration of word and image. This analysis argues that the porous form of the novel has proven to be an eminently suitable place of cohabitation with the visual arts, demonstrated most vividly in its innovative use of ekphrasis.

Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. University of Chicago Press, 1994: 3.

M. C. Escher, Drawing Hands (1948)

About the speaker:

Neil Murphy is a Professor of English at CUHK. He is the editor of Aidan Higgins: The Fragility of Form (Dalkey Archive Press, 2010), and has co-edited (with Keith Hopper) The Short Fiction of Flann O’Brien (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013) and a four-book series on the Irish writer, Dermot Healy. His monograph, John Banville (2018), was published by Bucknell University Press (new edition to be re-issued in 2024), and he has co-edited (with W. Michelle Wang and Cheryl Julia Lee), the Routledge Companion to Literature and Art (2024). Forthcoming in 2024 is his co-edited (with Derek Hand and Kathleen Costello-Sullivan) Companion to Contemporary Irish Literature (Syracuse Uni. Press), and a monograph on Contemporary Fiction and Art (2025).

15 January 2024

Digital Humanities Initiatives Talk Series – From History Book to Digital Humanity Database: Case Study of Chinese Classics

Date: 15 January 2024 (Mon)
Time: 5 pm (HKT)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Prof. LI Bin
School of Chinese Language and Literature,
Nanjing Normal University

About the talk:

Artificial intelligence technology has rapidly changed the study form of humanities. In this presentation, we will discuss the key issues in using natural language processing, deep learning, GIS, database and visualization technologies to design a new digital humanities database from the electronic texts of ancient books. We will introduce automatic tagging tools for ancient Chinese sentence/word segmentation, named entity tagging. Then, we will present a case study of constructing the DH database of Chinese classics Zuozhuan(左傳), Shiji(史記) and Zizhitongjian(資治通鑒), which offers word based multi-functional retrieval in addition to the full-text retrieval. Data analysis and visualization also reveal new facts from the texts, such as the personal social relations and travelling distance. Finally, we discuss the potential improvements and applications of the DH database.

About the speaker:

Prof. LI Bin is a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Nanjing Normal University, and head of the Center of Language Big Data and Computational Humanities. He teaches Chinese information processing, syntax, data structures, mathematical logic, artificial intelligence, digital humanities and database applications. He earned Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Nanjing Normal University. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Nanjing University from 2010 to 2013, a visiting scholar at the Computer Science Department at Brandeis University in the United States in 2015, and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University in 2019. His research interests include lexical analysis, cognitive semantic computing, corpus technology, ancient languages and digital humanities. He has published three books and over 70 papers.

15 December 2023

The Expansion of Halal Certification and the Role of China: Leaders, Followers, and Halal Diplomacy

This talk is hosted by South Asia From Asia Initiative

Speaker: Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi, NYU-Abu Dhabi

Date: Friday, 15 December 2023

Time: 10 – 11:30am

Location: Fung King Hey Building, G24, CUHK

All are welcome!

About the talk:

Hosted by the South Asia From Asia Initiative, in this talk Dr. El Bernoussi will share her research on the global halal economy focuses on select halal markets, which are significant in size and their aspiration of leading halal certification and related quality standardization in the past few years. For each case, Dr. El Bernoussi systematically looks at whether China is a significant partner in the halal market and projections regarding their influence. The expansion of the halal certification process in these countries also presents a trend that is now increasingly observable in major regional markets of halal, i.e., MENA, EU and ASEAN. The paper first presents a general review of literature in social studies of halal markets and international relations of the global South relevant to the topic of the research, notably with the growing influence of China. Then, the methods section provides an overview of the actors interviewed to learn about halal certification and quality standardization, and the questions that framed the discussions and exchange with them. Lastly, the findings and analysis section concentrates on three key arguments: 1) the halal protocols suffer from a double illness: firms find them burdensome and halal certification bodies (HCBs) from different countries tend to distrust each other; 2) despite being the symbolic center of the Muslim world, MENA countries seem to lag behind in terms of heralding global efforts to unify the global halal economy; 3) even if the global halal market lacks unity in terms of its framing, its growth is triggering important advancements in terms of standardization and quality control that institutionalize consumption and production ethics and professionalize the halal market.

About the speaker:

Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi is a scholar of dignity politics, international relations, and the global political economy. She is a visiting assistant professor of social research and public policy at New York University of Abu Dhabi. She holds a master’s in finance from Instituto de Empresa, an MPA in economic development from Columbia University, and a PhD in political and social sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain. She was a doctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a visiting scholar at Smith College and Harvard University. She is part of the executive committee of the Global South Caucus of the International Studies Association (ISA). She was a recipient of the Arab Prize in 2015 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) for her article, “Postcolonial Politics of Dignity,” she published her first book with Cambridge University Press in 2021, and she has a forthcoming book under contract with Routledge expected in 2024. Her work focuses on South-South cooperation and human and economic development programs. In particular, she looks at Sino-Arab bilateral relations as they contribute to the halal economy. Dr. El Bernoussi did fieldwork on halal certification processes at the IMANOR in Rabat, Morocco, the Halal Academy in Cordoba, Spain, the BPJPH in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Halal Catering in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to China’s role in the halal economy, she also looks at China’s control of maritime ports in the MENA. Her website is: drzelb.wordpress.com

9 December 2023

Translating personalities: A computational analysis of character portrayals in fan and professional translations

A RIH’s Digital Humanities Seed Grant awarded project

Abstract

This comprehensive study merges the fields of digital humanities, psychology, and translation studies, marking a pioneering interdisciplinary approach. It focuses on the translation of Louis Cha’s renowned Condor Trilogy, specifically A Hero Born: The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The research compares Anna Holmwood’s 2018 professional translation of the first nine chapters with a fan translation from an online forum. The study employs innovative digital humanities methods, including text mining, sentiment analysis, and visualization techniques, moving beyond traditional close reading to a computational distant reading approach. Central to this study is an examination of translators’ behaviors and how different translation types—fan-based and professional—affect character portrayals in literature. By analyzing translations of the same text, the study reveals significant differences in character depiction. These variations are quantitatively assessed using the Big Five personality traits, highlighting that fan translations, influenced by collective perceptions within fan communities, exhibit greater disparities, particularly in main characters. These findings show the distinct approaches and priorities of fan and professional translators, particularly in terms of character interpretation and emotional resonance. The research offers insights into the use of digital humanities tools in translation studies. It demonstrates how computational methods can objectively assess subjective interpretations and delineate the variances between fan and professional translations.

Dr. Lidia Mengyuan ZHOU
Lecturer
Department of Translation
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Biography
Dr. Lidia Mengyuan ZHOU serves as a Lecturer at the Department of Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Her primary areas of research encompass digital humanities within translation studies, Chinese-Portuguese-English translation/interpreting, and translation technology. She has contributed several articles to international peer-reviewed journals, addressing subjects such as comparative literature, dynamics in Chinese-Portuguese-English indirect translation, and poetry translation. In 2021-2022, she led a research endeavor titled “Image of Contemporary China in Portugal: Reception of Chinese Contemporary Literature (2000-2020)”, funded by the Macau Government. Additionally, she is the Principal Investigator for two digital humanities projects, funded by the CUHK, centered on the English and Portuguese translations of Louis Cha’s literary works.

8 December 2023

Interdisciplinary Lecture Series: Scaffolded emotions by Prof. Giovanna Colombetti

Speaker: Prof. Giovanna Colombetti, Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy

Date: 8 December 2023 (Friday)
Updated Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies Conference Room (2/F Art Museum East Wing) CUHK
https://cuhk.edu.hk/ics/clrc/english/directions.html

Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm

Please click here to reserve your seat.

About the lecture:

Recent debates on the nature of the emotions include what has been called the “situated perspective”. Its proponents criticize the general tendency, in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, to consider emotions only as states, or processes, of a person’s brain or body (a position also known as “individualism”), with little consideration for the role of environment. As a remedy, scholars suggest to regard emotions as scaffolded by the environment, both synchronically and diachronically. In this talk Prof. Colombetti will present this notion of “scaffolded emotions” in detail, explain why she thinks it is valuable, and suggest various ways in which it can be developed further.

Prof. Giovanna Colombetti is a philosopher with a background in both philosophy and cognitive science. She works primarily on emotion and affectivity from the perspective of so-called ‘4E cognition’ (embodied, embedded, enactive and extended cognition). Since her PhD (Sussex, 2004) Prof. Colombetti has strived to reconceptualize various affective phenomena from a dynamical, embodied-enactive and, more recently, situated perspective. In both her teaching and research she draws quite liberally on phenomenology, analytic philosophy, as well as theoretical and experimental work in psychology and neuroscience. More recently Prof. Colombetti has become interested in the contribution that the social sciences and the field of material culture studies can make to our understanding of affectivity, in particular in the context of philosophical debates on the ‘scaffolded’ and perhaps even ‘extended’ nature of the mind.

4 December 2023

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series: “Death in 3D : the visualizations of ancient Egyptian coffins and their virtual traveling back to the tombs”

Date: 4 December 2023 (Monday)
Time: 12 noon (HKT)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Prof. Rita Lucarelli
Associate Professor of Egyptology
Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Culture
UC Berkeley

About the talk:

Since 2015, the Book of the Dead in 3D Project produces 3D annotated models of ancient Egyptian decorated coffins and sarcophagi, conceived as media of funerary religion and magic. In this lecture it will be discussed how meaningful it is to study a religious text or image through digital annotations on a 3D model of ancient artefacts.

In the second part of this lecture, the application of VR technology to the study of ancient Egyptian coffins and funerary monuments will be discussed as well, through the presentation of the international collaborative project “Return to the Tomb: the re-contextualization of a 26th Dynasty Egyptian sarcophagus at the cemetery of Saqqara in Virtual Reality” (UC Berkely, UC Santa Cruz, Virginia Tech, University of Bonn)

Since 2015, The Book of the Dead in 3D Project produces 3D annotated models of ancient Egyptian coffins and sarcophagi, serving as mediums for funerary religion and magic. This lecture examines the significance of studying religious texts and images using digital annotations on 3D models of ancient artifacts. Additionally, the lecture delves into the application of virtual reality (VR) technology in studying Egyptian coffins and funerary monuments. The collaborative project “Return to the Tomb” by UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Virginia Tech, and the University of Bonn demonstrates the re-contextualization of a 26th Dynasty Egyptian sarcophagus in Saqqara Cemetery through VR.

About the speaker:

Rita Lucarelli is an Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Culture, and the Class of 1939 Chair of Undergraduate Education. She is the Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and a Fellow of the Digital Humanities at UC Berkeley. She is presently working at a project aiming at realizing 3D models of ancient Egyptian coffins, the Book of the Dead in 3D. She is also completing a new monograph on demonology in ancient Egypt entitled Agents of punishment and protection: ancient Egyptian Demonology in the First Millenium BCE.
Rita Lucarelli teaches, lectures and researches Egyptomania and the reception of ancient Egypt in the contemporary world, in particular on the representation of ancient Egypt in Afrofuturism. She also teaches courses of Egyptology, Comparative Religion and Interdisciplinary Writing at San Quentin State Prison through the Mount Tamalpais College (https://www.mttamcollege.org/).

Rita Lucarelli studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Italy, where she received her MA degree in Classical Languages and Egyptology. She holds her Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her Ph.D. thesis was published as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC. She worked as a Research Scholar and a Lecturer at the Department of Egyptology of Bonn University, where she was part of the team of the “Book of the Dead Project”.

22 November 2023

Bones & Beyond: Forensic Anthropology Unearthed

Speaker: Dr. Judyta Olszewski, University of Hong Kong

Venue: Rm 312, Tsang Shiu Tim Building, United College, CUHK

Date: 22 November 2023

Time: 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

Registration: Online registration form

Abstract:

Forensic anthropology, a sub-discipline of biological anthropology, involves the examination of human skeletal remains to assist law enforcement agencies. The average person is accustomed to seeing the forensic sciences in television like Bones and CSI, but the work of forensic specialists is also portrayed in news coverage and online media. It warrants the query: does media provide an accurate representation of the sub- discipline? If not, what does forensic anthropology truly involve?

This lecture will explore the facts and fiction surrounding forensic anthropology, while incorporating personal experiences from other continents like Africa and Europe, to provide a realistic understanding of the discipline and dispel popular myths. The discussion will encompass the historical background of forensic anthropology, its evolution, and its contributions to the field of forensic science, including current methods. This lecture will further examine the portrayal of forensic anthropology in popular culture and discuss the potential impact on public perception and expectations. Common misconceptions and myths will be debunked, and the limitations and challenges faced by forensic anthropologists will be highlighted. The future of forensic anthropology will be considered, with emphasis on emerging trends, interdisciplinary and cross-national collaborations, and ethical considerations.

Bio:

Dr. Judyta Olszewski, a forensic anthropologist trained in Europe and South Africa, will talk about some of her experiences in the field.

13 November 2023

Digital Humanities Talk Series: Mining networks in MARKUS: A study of Chosŏn interpreters’ trade networks in Qing China

Date: 13 November 2023 (Mon)
Time: 5 pm (HK time)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Ms. Jing Hu
Research Librarian in the East Asia Department
Berlin State Library

About the talk:

The complex tributary relations between the Qing and Chosŏn dynasties did more than define their political affiliations; they also shaped intricate economic networks. Drawing from the Korean envoys’ travelogues, Yŏnhaengnok, this lecture explores the unofficial trade activities undertaken by Chosŏn interpreters during tribute missions to Qing China. Utilizing digital platforms like MARKUS and DocuSky, the research maps out who these interpreters traded with, what commodities were involved, and the geographic locations of these transactions.

This lecture aims to introduce to the methodology of text mining and historical network analysis. The approach of the example research involves the sophisticated use of entity extraction, ontology creation for network building, and relational annotation to visualize networks and GIS data. Attendees will gain insight into the utility of these methods in historical research based on East Asian texts.

About the speaker:

Jing Hu is a social historian specializing in Chosŏn Korea and a digital humanities specialist. She is currently a Research Librarian in the East Asia department at the Berlin State Library. She earned her MA degree in Cultural Informatics from the Academy of Korean Studies in 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, she worked as a researcher at Renmin University of China. Subsequently, she has pursued her PhD at Leiden University (2016-2022) and KU Leuven (2022-present). During her doctoral journey, she contributed to development projects such as the Korean text annotation platform K-MARKUS (https://dh.chinese-empires.eu/markus/) and the text comparison platform ZGZY Parallels (https://dh.chinese-empires.eu/zgzy/?ed=MOD&ch=1&psg=).

6 November 2023

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series: Uncovering word meaning change in texts with computational models

Date: 6 November 2023 (Mon)
Time: 6 pm (HK time)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Dr Barbara McGillivray
Lecturer in Digital Humanities and Cultural Computation
King’s College London

About the talk:

Thanks to the increasing availability of digital textual collections and the advancement of data-intensive techniques from the computational sciences, a unique opportunity has emerged for testing these methods in contemporary humanities research. An especially suitable domain for this endeavour is the investigation of the evolution of word meanings. This field has broad applicability and relevance that extends far beyond the realm of linguistic research, encompassing disciplines such as history, literary studies, lexicography, and classics. Moreover, computational linguistics research has recently focused on this area, leading to the development of various algorithms aimed at automatically identifying semantic shifts from corpus data, albeit with varying degrees of success. In this talk, Dr. McGillivray will provide an overview of computational techniques for analysing shifts in meaning within historical texts. Discussions will be informed by her work on ancient Greek, Latin, historical English, and contemporary. Emphasis will be placed on methodological considerations, highlighting the broader implications of this research in digital humanities.

About the Speaker:

Barbara is a digital humanist and computational linguist. Before joining King’s in 2021, Barbara was Turing research fellow at The Alan Turing Institute and at the University of Cambridge between 2017 and 2021. Before that, she worked as language technologist in the Dictionary division of Oxford University Press and as data scientist in the Open Research Group of Springer Nature. She obtained her PhD in computational linguistics from the University of Pisa (Italy) in 2010, after a Master’s degree in Mathematics and a Bachelor’s degree in Classics from the University of Firenze (Italy). She is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Open Humanities Data and co-Investigator of the Living with Machines project. She is also Turing fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, and president of SIGHUM, ACL’s special interest group on Language Technologies for the Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities.

31 October 2023

3D Printed Museum Competition & Briefing on 3D Printing & 3D Modeling

Briefing on 3D Printing and 3D Modeling

Date: 31 October 2023
Time: 3 -4 pm
Venue: Digital Scholarship Lab, University Library

Presentations download
3D Printing & Humanities by Prof. Stuart McManus

3D Modeling and Printing by Ms. Carol Kong

3D Printed Museum Competition Application Form, click here to download

24 November 2023

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?

24 Nov. (Fri.) 4:30 – 6:00 pm

ARC G03 (G/F, Lee Shau Kee Architecture Building)

Registration: Sign up here

Join us for this 90-minute session, during which Prof. James ST. ANDRÉ 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. André and Sun, followed by a 30-minute Q & A. All are welcome!

3 October 2023

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series: Local/Global Digital Skills in the Humanities: Which Digital Skills do Scholars Need Here?

Date: 3 October 2023 (Tue)
Time: 5 pm(HK time)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Prof. Adam Crymble
Associate Professor of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies
University College London

Technology may be global, but our use of it in humanities work is profoundly local. The digital skills that are widely promoted to humanities scholars in London vary from those taught in Bogota Colombia, or Bengaluru India, and probably also from those easily available to you in Hong Kong. The reasons for these variations are many, including language, research culture, economics, and historical factors (for example, did your region colonise somewhere else, or was it colonised?). These skills variations can lead to real strengths and locally-driven approaches to education that create centres of excellence in particular fields. But, because few people notice the differences unless they move abroad, there is a risk that local digital skills culture may leave some scholars missing out on approaches that would really help them to excel. This talk discusses the importance of taking charge of your skills development and of ensuring that your local digital skills provision is well suited to the tasks local scholars really need, not just what has always been taught.

This talk emphasizes the significance of locally tailored digital skills development for humanities scholars. While technology is global, its application varies based on factors like language, research culture, and history. These variations can create centres of excellence but may leave some scholars without access to beneficial approaches. To excel, scholars must take charge of their skills development, ensuring that local digital skills provision aligns with their specific needs. Institutions should also adapt their curriculum to meet changing demands. By embracing these principles, scholars can bridge gaps, leverage technology effectively, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their fields.

About the speaker:

Dr Adam Crymble is an Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at University College London in the United Kingdom. He is a founding editor of the award-winning Programming Historian, a multilingual suite of publications that offer more than 200 free digital skills tutorials in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. His research looks at how digital approaches to scholarship can help us to better understand the history of migration. His most recent book, Technology and the Historian (2021), looks at how the discipline of history has evolved in the digital era, and the challenges and opportunities that have presented

31 May 2024 (tbc)

Call for Proposals – 3D Printed Museum Competition

The Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) and the University Library invite proposals from the Faculty of Arts student community to form teams to participate in a 3D Printed Museum Competition.

3D Printed Museum Competition

Competition theme: Recreating Hong Kong in the 1960s & 1970s
This competition is open to CUHK Faculty of Arts undergraduate and postgraduate students only.
Each team should have between two and three members.
Knowledge of 3D printing and modeling is not required. A technical workshop will be provided to the shortlisted contestants.
Each shortlisted team will be given $1,000 worth of 3D printing credits to produce their exhibits in the University Library’s MakerSpace.
Each team must present five 3D printed objects related to the competition theme; at least two objects should be reproduced on the basis of 3D scanning.
Exhibits may be displayed in the University Library following the competition.
Prize: The winning team will receive $1,500 book vouchers, while the remaining shortlisted teams will receive $500 book vouchers each.
Call for proposal deadline: 31 January 2024 (extended)

Interested Faculty of Arts students should submit a proposal using this template.

Presentations download
3D Printing & Humanities by Prof. Stuart McManus (Dept. History), Associate Director, RIH

3D Modeling and Printing by Ms. Carol Kong, Learning Services Librarian

Completed proposals should be sent to rihs@cuhk.edu.hk by 31 January 2024. Please send inquiries to the same email address as well.

First-round results will be announced on 5 February 2024.

25 September 2023

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series: Who Did What: The Challenges of Multilingual Text Analysis, Grammar, and Copyright

Date: 25 September 2023 (Mon)
Time: 12 noon (HK time)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Quinn Dombrowski,
Academic Technology Specialist in Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
Center for Interdisciplinary Digital Research
Stanford University

The approaches of computational text analysis have made it possible, for quite some time now, to ask certain literary questions at large scale. Methods such as topic modeling, stylometry, principal component analysis on word frequencies, and word vectors can be used to find thematic and topical patterns across large corpora, and answer questions that would be impossible to approach using traditional means. One reason why digital humanities has had a relatively limited impact on the field of literary analysis is the fact that those large-scale questions resonate less well with the field more broadly. Within the last five years, advances in natural-language processing (NLP) techniques have made it possible to do meaningful computational work on a scale similar to that used by more traditional scholars, making it possible to analyze a text at the level of the sentence, and track a character’s description or action in detail. Shifting the scale of reading that computational methods can support from broad themes across large corpora, to individual character actions has significant potential for bringing digital humanists into a closer dialogue with traditional literary scholars, but the exact nature of what can be analyzed depends to a great extent on the language of the text, and what markers (e.g. politeness, gender, time) are explicitly encoded in the grammar. This talk will take as a starting point work on distinctive character verbs done through a Stanford Literary Lab project on Star Wars novels. It will explore how tools like spaCy and David Bamman’s BookNLP can allow us to computationally pursue questions with greater crossover interest into traditional literary studies, as well as the affordance of different languages when gathering evidence for making a traditional literary studies argument. Finally, it will touch on the evolving landscape of copyright law and fair dealing in Hong Kong and the US, as it relates to acquiring texts in the necessary form to do this kind of analysis.

About the speaker:

Quinn Dombrowski (non-binary, any pronouns are fine) is the Academic Technology Specialist in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and in the Library, at Stanford University. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2018, Quinn’s many DH adventures included supporting the high-performance computing cluster at UC Berkeley, running the DiRT tool directory with support from the Mellon Foundation, writing books on Drupal for Humanists and University of Chicago library graffiti, and working on the program staff of Project Bamboo, a failed digital humanities cyberinfrastructure initiative. Quinn has a BA/MA in Slavic Linguistics from the University of Chicago, and an MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since coming to Stanford, Quinn has supported numerous non-English DH projects, taught courses on non-English DH, started a Textile Makerspace, developed a tabletop roleplaying game to teach DH project management, explored trends in multilingual Harry Potter fanfic, and started the Data-Sitters Club, a feminist DH pedagogy and research group focused on Ann M. Martin’s 90’s girls series “The Baby-Sitters Club”. Quinn is currently co-VP of the Association for Computers and the Humanities along with Roopika Risam, and advocates for better support for DH in languages other than English.

18 September 2023

Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series: Bibliography and the Business of the Digital Humanities

Date: 18 September 2023 (Mon)
Time: 12 noon (HK time)
On Zoom
Language: English

Please click here to register

Speaker:
Wayne de Fremery, PhD
Professor of Information Science and Entrepreneurship,
Director of the Françoise O. Lepage Center for Global Innovation,
Dominican University of California

This talk will suggest that the old art and science of bibliography is integral to the business of the digital humanities. Business in this context is meant to suggest the work done in the digital humanities and the entrepreneurial opportunities afforded to digital humanists in academia, industry, and as entrepreneurs. Recognizing the bibliography’s centrality to humanistic practice as it has been shaped by digital technologies helps to illuminate the ways that the digital humanities have been formulated as a field. Moreover, understanding the integral role played by bibliography in humanistic practice reveals ways that digital humanists can productively contribute to humanistic understanding while also transgressing the conceptual limits of the contemporary humanities to make contributions to other fields in academia, as well as contributions to industry and society as analysts and researchers, businesspeople and entrepreneurs.

About the speaker:

Before joining Dominican, Prof. Wayne de Fremery was an associate professor of Korean Studies in the School of Media, Arts, and Science at Sogang University in South Korea, where he lived for twenty years. He currently represents the Korean National Body at ISO as Convener of a working group on document description, processing languages, and semantic metadata (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 WG 9). He is also owner of Tamal Vista Insights LLC, an independent producer of software that democratizes access to artificial intelligence, as well as Director of the Korea Text Initiative at the Cambridge Institute for the Study of Korea. Work by Prof. de Fremery has recently appeared in The Materiality of Reading, Library Hi Tech, A Companion to World Literature, Translation Review, and the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. His latest book, Cats, Carpenters, and Accountants: Bibliographical Foundations of Information Science, is forthcoming from MIT Press in the spring of 2024.

31 July 2024

Transnational Urban Humanities

A RIH-funded Interdisciplinary Research Project

This initiative provides an interdisciplinary platform for humanities scholars working in different fields, locations, and periods to examine the interconnected cultures and aesthetics of understudied cities in Asia and elsewhere. It also aims to cultivate networks between urban humanities scholars at CUHK with other universities in Hong Kong and overseas.

Hyperlink to the project website

Reading group meetings

Project team

Elmo GONZAGA, Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Joana MANSBRIDGE, Associate Professor, English (Theater Studies), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Collier NOGUES, Assistant Professor, English (Creative Writing), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Klaudia H.Y. LEE, Acting Head, English, City University of Hong Kong (19th and 20th Century Anglophone Literature)
Alvin K. WONG, Director, Centre for Globalization and Culture, Comparative Literature, The University of Hong Kong (Sinophone Media Studies)

Project objectives

• To provide an interdisciplinary platform for humanities scholars working on different fields, locations, and periods to examine the interconnected cultures and aesthetics of understudied cities in Asia and elsewhere.
• To cultivate networks between urban humanities scholars at CUHK with other universities in Hong Kong and overseas.
• To organize an international workshop featuring speakers from different disciplines including Literature, Film and Media Studies, Urban Anthropology, Cultural Geography, and Art and Architecture History.
• To produce an edited volume comprising papers developed for the workshop.

Project brief description

Policy institutes and consultancy firms such as AT Kearney and the Economist Intelligence Unit have highlighted how rapidly expanding cities in Asia are becoming the key drivers of the global economy. Recent initiatives in the Urban Humanities have tended to center on the disciplines of Geography and Architecture in North America and Western Europe. This working group aims to provide a platform for interdisciplinary research that will examine the changing cultures and aesthetics of metropolitan areas and city clusters across Asia and around the world by drawing on the concepts and methods of the arts and humanities in relation to other fields.

This working group will build on recent interdisciplinary and cross-institutional initiatives in Urban Humanities. HKU has its own Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities Initiative, which has been in existence since 2012. The newly established Urban Humanities Network, which comprises Harvard University, Princeton University, UC Berkeley, University of Arizona, Washington University-St. Louis, and UCLA, held its inaugural conference in March 2023. The similarly new Communicative Cities Research Network, involving a partnership between Fudan University and the National University of Singapore, will stage its inaugural conference at Yonsei University in October 2023. Convened by interdisciplinary humanities scholars in CUHK and CityU, together with collaborators in HKU and HKBU, this initiative in Transnational Urban Humanities has great potential to expand its network to encompass scholars based in different universities and cities around the world.

This cross-institutional, collaborative Transnational Urban Humanities initiative will draw on concepts and methods from interdisciplinary works in Literature, Film and Media Studies, Urban Anthropology, Cultural Geography, and Art and Architecture History. Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space (1974; Wiley-Blackwell, 1992) is seminal in various fields for theorizing the connections among spatial ideologies, practices, and imaginaries. Nezar AlSayyad’s Cinematic Urbanism (Routledge, 2006), Yomi Braester’s Painting the City Red (Duke, 2010), and Gyan Prakash’ Noir Urbanisms (Princeton, 2010) explore how film imaginaries shape the visions and blueprints of urban planners and designers. Jini Kim Watson’s The New Asian City (Minnesota, 2011) analyzes how novels and poems capture the effects of global capitalism and national development on the residents of the capitals of Asian Tiger Economies. Lastly, Setha Low’s On the Plaza (Texas, 2000), AbdouMaliq Simone’s For the City Yet to Come (Duke, 2004), and Aihwa Ong’s Neoliberalism as Exception (Duke, 2006) are pioneering ethnographies of how processes of development and neoliberalism are experienced and negotiated in distinct ways by urban residents through their own frameworks and languages.

Informed by these interdisciplinary works, the RIH-funded Transnational Urban Humanities working group aims to explore the following key questions:
• How can interdisciplinary concepts and methods from Literature, Film and Media Studies, Urban Anthropology, Cultural Geography, and Art and Architecture History be used to examine the cultures and aesthetics of understudied cities?
• How do the production, circulation, consumption, and reproduction of cultural representations and artistic expressions shape the imagination, design, and construction of urban environments?
• How might the dynamic, changing cultures and aesthetics of cities shape their residents’ identity, aspiration, agency, and community?

Events

Transnational Urban Narratives Network reading group meeting (CityU, 6 November 2024, 5-7pm) more

Urban Mediations: International Conference on the Narratives, Ecologies, and Poetics of the City (Hong Kong, 5-6 December 2024) more

12 September 2023

Rethinking the Circuits of Cold War Culture: International Dance Exchanges in Mao-Era China

Professor Emily Wilcox, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, William & Mary, USA

Date: 12 September 2023 (Tue)
Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm
Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies Theatre, CUHK
Click here to reserve a seat

About the speaker:

Emily Wilcox is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at William & Mary and formerly Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan. Wilcox is the author or co-editor of five books: Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy (University of California Press, 2018, winner of the 2019 de la Torre Bueno Prize® from the Dance Studies Association); Corporeal Politics: Dancing East Asia (University of Michigan Press, 2020), 革命的身体：重新认识现当代中国舞蹈文化 (Fudan University Press, 2023); Inter-Asia in Motion: Dance as Method (Routledge, 2024); and Teaching Film from the People’s Republic of China (Modern Language Association, 2024). She is also co-creator of the University of Michigan Chinese Dance Collection. In fall 2023, Wilcox will be a member in residence in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where she is writing a book on international dance exchange in Mao-era China.

4 August 2023

2023 Interdisciplinary Initiative Projects

The RIH is delighted to announce that three proposals have been selected as the 2023 Interdisciplinary Initiative Projects. The projects are Transnational Urban Humanities, Archaeological Science in Hong Kong and South Asia From Asia Initiative.

The RIH Interdisciplinary Initiative has the following aims: to encourage interdisciplinary research crossing the boundaries of individual academic units, to promote collaboration among faculty members in the Faculty of Arts with shared intellectual interests, and to develop interdisciplinary research in new areas with the support of a knowledgeable, diverse group of colleagues. The three chosen projects have shown a clear emphasis on integrating interdisciplinary research and innovation into a dynamic and impactful continuum.

Transnational Urban Humanities

This initiative provides an interdisciplinary platform for humanities scholars working in different fields, locations, and periods to examine the interconnected cultures and aesthetics of understudied cities in Asia and elsewhere. It also aims to cultivate networks between urban humanities scholars at CUHK with other universities in Hong Kong and overseas.

Archaeological Science in Hong Kong

This initiative facilitates dialogue and knowledge exchange on a wide range of topics related to the human past. Researchers can share the latest developments in their respective fields through themed technical workshops and focus group meetings. Ultimately, this initiative will help advance the study of the human past by strengthening the collaborative network to address research interests more effectively.

South Asia From Asia Initiative

The aim of this initiative will be in three main areas: research, pedagogy, and public interaction. Research: it will develop research collaboration between interdisciplinary members, and give a venue to present research. Pedagogy: there will be mentoring of PG and UG students interested in South Asia, as well as course development. Public interaction: it will hold public talks and events highlighting South Asian connections in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and East Asia.

Each project will receive around HK$150,000 to cover the cost of activities. Congratulations to all and all the best for the journey ahead!

3 July 2023

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship 2023 Awardee

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Experience
(3 – 7 July 2023)

LI, Tong
Year 2, Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies

I am grateful for the scholarship I received from the Research Institute for the Humanities to support me to attend the 2023 Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School. This opportunity allowed me to learn about the latest trends and innovations in the field of digital humanities.

During the summer school, I attended workshops, seminars, lectures and a poster session that covered a wide range of topics related to digital humanities. These included text analysis, digital geomapping, and artificial intelligence, among others. I obtained hands-on experience with tools, software and technologies, such as data modelling, visualization, network analysis, and digital archives processing. Through group discussions and social events, I was able to learn from diverse perspectives and build connections with potential collaborators in this exciting field.

My experience at the digital humanities summer school in Oxford is tremendously beneficial for my future research. I gained a deeper understanding of the digital methods and technologies for humanities research, and I look forward to applying these skills and knowledge to my research endeavours.

L: Workshop on computational text analysis
M: In the gothic Dining Hall of Keble College, Oxford
R: Lecture on the role of machine learning in humanities research

31 July 2024

South Asia from Asia Initiative

A RIH-funded interdisciplinary research project

The aim of this initiative will be in three main areas: research, pedagogy, and public interaction. Research: it will develop research collaboration between interdisciplinary members, and give a venue to present research. Pedagogy: there will be mentoring of PG and UG students interested in South Asia, as well as course development. Public interaction: it will hold public talks and events highlighting South Asian connections in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and East Asia.

Project team

CUHK Faculty of Arts
Leilah Vevaina (ANT)
Venera Khalikova (ANT)
Wyman Tang (ANT)
Stuart McManus (HIS)
Yao Zhihua (PHIL)
Hayden Kee (PHIL)
Aaron Hames (ANT)
Tim Rosenkranz (ANT)
Bruce Worthington (CRS)

CUHK Other Faculties
Christopher Roberts (LAW)
Nishant Shah (COM)

CUHK RPG Students
LI Xing (Program Coordinator)
Amy Phua
Varsha Upraity
Ina Goel

Non-CUHK
Alastair McClure (HKU History)
Devika Shankar (HKU History)
Brian Tsui (Poly U History)
Tejaswini Niranjana (Ahmedabad University, India)
Cheuk Ka-Kin (University of Southampton, UK)

Project objectives

The aim of this initiative would be in three main areas:
• Research: form research collaboration between interdisciplinary members; venue to present research
• Pedagogy: mentoring of PG and UG students interested in South Asia; course development
• public interaction: public talks and events highlighting South Asia connections in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and East Asia

If this initiative were successful, it could lead to:
• funding 2024-5 and beyond
• a Collaborative Research Grant
• Faculty of Arts collaborative teaching
• RGC Inter-University funding
• Further recruitment of UG and PG students from South Asia/working on South Asia

Project brief description

While CUHK and particularly the Faculty of Arts excels in the study of Hong Kong, Mainland China, and East Asia more broadly, several faculty members and RPG students have research expertise in South Asia or South Asian diasporas and cultures within East Asia. Instead of focusing this Initiative on research on South Asia, firmly within a kind of area-studies paradigm, it seeks to think across broad regional worlds and fixed disciplinary foci to emphasizing the complex connections across entrenched, imaginary geographies produced by area studies paradigms and geo-political realities. The Initiative seeks to build on the strengths of our current faculty research and reach forward to think through Asian connections from the perspective of Hong Kong, rather than the West, that is, research and connections on South Asia from Asia.

In terms of research, the Initiative would be a venue for faculty members to present work and foster collaboration within and beyond CUHK. These collaboration could lead to individual papers, workshops, collaborative research grants, new course proposals, and even RGC Inter-university funding. Its pedagogical aim is to foster strong mentoring relations between students and faculty members, in particular, RPG students working on these connections. With its web presence, the Initiative also hopes to aid as a recruitment tool for prospective students from South Asia and those who wish to study these connections within the Faculty of Arts. In terms of public interaction, the group hopes to highlight the historical and continuing ties between South Asian diasporas and culture, and Hong Kong.

(15 Dec. 2023) The Expansion of Halal Certification and the Role of China: Leaders, Followers, and Halal Diplomacy Speaker: Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi, NYU-Abu Dhabi
(19 Mar. 2024) Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York Speaker: Dr Tina Shrestha, Waseda University

(2 Apr. 2024) Seeking Sisterhood: Travel Writing, Asia, and the Search for Muslim Women’s Solidarity in Colonial India Speaker: Dr. Daniel Majchrowicz (Northwestern University)

(15 Apr.2024) An Ayurvedic Pill for COVID-19: Media Discourse on Alternative Treatments during the Pandemic in India Speaker: Dr. Venera R. Khalikova, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, CUHK

(16 April 2026) Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World Speaker: Prof. Joshua Ehrlich (Department of History, University of Macau) More

(21 Oct. 2026) A Mosque by Any Other Name: (Un-)Official Islamic Places of Worship in Hong Kong Speaker: WONG Siu Miu, Michelle (MPhil in Religious Studies, CUHK) learn more

22 May 2023

RIH Research Seed Grants (Teaching Staff) 2023 Awardee – Dr. Lidia Zhou (TRA)

RIH is excited to announce the recipient of the 2023 Digital Humanities Research Seed Grants – Dr. Lidia Zhou from the Department of Translation. We are proud to support her DH research journey.

This seed grant aims to fund the initial development of new research projects that will analyze digital sources, apply algorithmic methods to humanities data, or create digital publications, exhibits, or websites.

As an advocator of digital humanities at CUHK, RIH provides financial and educational support to help research staff and students achieve their goals through the use of digital humanities technologies.

27 April 2023

RIH Tea Gathering 27 April 2023

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.

24 April 2023

Day of Digital Humanities 2023 (24 April)

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

30 April 2023

RIH Digital Humanities Research (Teaching Staff) Seed Grants

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

16 January 2023

Academic Entrepreneurship: Lessons from History

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.

7 February 2023

RIH Digital Humanities Student Seed Grants

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

Program Expectations

Contact

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

? Visit Apply page

9 January 2023

Digital Humanities Initiatives Applicant Info Session (Zoom)

Please click here to register.

28 November 2022

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

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.

14 November 2022

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

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.

24 October 2022

OpenGulf: Toward a Post-National Digital History (Zoom)

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.

17 October 2022

Digital Resources for the History of the Book

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

10 October 2022

Is There a Digital Legal History?

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.

5 October 2022

Digital humans – exploring the humanity in digital humanities

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.

19 September 2022

Fine-Tuning the Historian’s Macroscope: Data Reuse and Medieval Korean Biographical Records in Neo4j

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.

25 May 2022

Action Techniques and Anthroptechnics : Or: what Bruce Lee choreography can teach us about reality

11 May 2022

Digital Humanities Across the Faculty series: Found Corpora: What, Why, How?

13 April 2022

Digital Humanities Across the Faculty series: Reunderstanding Chinese Versification: Digital Humanities Initiatives

9 March 2022

Digital Humanities Across the Faculty series: Building and Using a Literary Corpus: Introducing Computational Literary Studies

7 December 2021

How to build a new image of Shanghai playing with heritage? (7 December 2021)

18 September 2021

Heritage Days in HK-A Tour of Two Catholic Orders

23 July 2021

LPC x RIH Lecture Series: From Colonial Compradores to Ethnic Minority – South Asians in Hong Kong

23 June 2021

The Impact of Multiculturalism and the New South-Bound Policy on New Immigrants in Taiwan

23-25 June 2021

International Conference “What After Eurocentrism? Phenomenology and Intercultural Philosophy”

20 April 2021

Rural Development and Beans: How Wandan Red Beans (萬丹紅豆) Become Famous in Taiwan

15 January 2021

Young Phenomenology Scholar Webinar Series:Beyond Dialectic: Young Phenomenology Scholar Webinar Series:Ideology and manipulated forgetting: A Ricoeurean phenomenological approach to social amnesia

11 December 2020

Young Phenomenology Scholar Webinar Series:Beyond Dialectic: 「革命與背叛：鄂蘭的現象學反省」

4 December 2020

TRC Zoom Talk: Confronting and communicating COVID-19 in Taiwan

4 December 2020

LPC x RIH Webinar Series: How South Asians Helped to Make Hong Kong

20 November 2020

Young Phenomenology Scholar Webinar Series:Beyond Dialectic: Encountering Otherness in a Dialogue between Gadamer and Derrida

25 April 2020

Wishing you Good Health: Origins and Evolution of Urban Sanitation Policy in Hong Kong (1860s–1930s)

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

5-6 March 2020

Postponed

International Conference on Urban Planning & Heritage Conversation: A Comparison between Hong Kong and Paris

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

26 October-2 November 2019

Islamic Cultural Festival 2019

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

24 October 2019

Lecture by Prof. Csaba Olay on Nancy’s Early Theory of Community

Oct 2019

RIH Newsletter Oct 2019

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”.

22 September 2019

A Travel through Time and Space: Historical Buildings That Bear Witness to Changes in People’s Livelihoods in Hong Kong

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.

10 August 2019

Reflections on the Development of Modern Chinese and Western Medicine through Tung Wah Archives

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?

22 July 2019

Lecture by Prof. Hou Jie on Studies on Tianjin City and its Future Development

22 May 2019

Phenomenology and Practice of Intercultural Understanding: Theory and Practice

17 April 2019

Lecture by Prof. Lincoln Li on Tentative Approach on Post-Mao China’s Civil Society

30 March 2019 & 18 May 2019

Multi-function Chinese Character Database

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

9 March 2019

Hong Kong’s Three trade Artisans and Trade Unions Before War

8 December 2018

A Bestowed Trust: An Islamic Perception on the Environment and Sustainable Development

6-7 December 2018

International Conference “Environmental Humanities 2018”

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

5 December 2018

International Workshop on “Food, nature, and the rhetoric of taste in History”

Dec 2018

RIH Newsletter Dec 2018

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

10 - 20 November 2018

Islamic Cultural Festival 2018

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。

29 March 2018

Lecture by Prof. Liu Xiaofei on Two Types of Generalization in Statistical Discrimination

Oct 2017

RIH Newsletter Oct 2017

18-21 February, 2016

Nurturing Life in Time: Exploring Medicine and Humanities through the Historical Sites and Archives of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

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.

22-23 October 2015

Re-viewing Taiwan: Re-viewing Taiwan: Regional Developments in a Global Frame

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.

30 June 2015

Lecture at Free University of Berlin

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.

17 April 2015

Lecture by Prof. Richard von Glahn on “Port Polities in 16th–17th Century Maritime East Asia”

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.

16 April 2015

Lecture by Prof. Wong Young-tsu on “民國史研究的方向與命題”

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.

1 April 2015

Lecture by Prof. Liu Hsiang Kwang on “卜算文化與心理健康：台灣宋史學者的觀點”

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.

23 March 2015

Lecture by Prof. Shen Kuiyi on “Chinese Traditional Painting in Post-war Taiwan”

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.

2-3 February 2015

Lecture by Prof. Liu Kuang Neng (National Central University, 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.

5 January 2015

Lecture at University of Macau

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.

1 December 2014

Lecture at the Department of American Studies, Brown University

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.

14 November 2014

Lecture at Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University

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.

6 October 2014

Lecture by Prof. Li Yu-chen, on “The Formation and Crystallization of the Identity of Buddhist Nuns in Post-war Taiwan

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.

3 October 2014

Lecture by Prof. Lee Cheuk-yin, on “Changing Religious Landscape and Popular Religions in Singapore 宗教景觀的變遷與新加坡的民間信仰”

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.

15-16 September 2014

Cold Front: The Chinese Cold War Experience in Comparison

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

5-8 June 2014

The 2014 Annual and Board Meeting of Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)–Performative Humanities

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.

May 2014

RIH Newsletter May 2014

30 March 2014

Lecture at National Taiwan University

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)”.

14-15 February 2014

流離與歸屬：二戰後港臺文學與其他」學術研討會

> 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

23 January 2014

Lecture at Free University of Berlin

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”.

December 2013

RIH Newsletter Dec 2013

21 October 2013

Lecture at “Forum for the Asia in the Humanities/Humanities in Asia Initiative”, UCLA

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.

26 July 2013

Lectures by Prof. Bin Wong and Prof Cao Shuji

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.

28 June 2013

Lecture by Prof. Richard von Glahn, on “Song Coin and Monetary Circulation in Maritime East Asia, 1200–1700”

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.

25-27 April 2013

The Annual and Board Meeting of Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)

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.

18 April 2013

Lecture at Washington University, St Louis

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.

11 April 2013

Lecture by Prof Chiang Tung-liang [50th Anniversary of CUHK Lecture]

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.

28 March 2013

Lecture by Prof Robert Lee [50th Anniversary of CUHK Lecture]

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.

08 March 2013

Lecture at Tan Kah Kee College, Xiamen University

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.

05 March 2013

Lecture by Dr Huang Ko-wu [50th Anniversary of CUHK Lecture]

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.

5 March 2013

Lecture by Prof. Huang Ko-wu, on “Pneumatology and Intellectual Transformation in Early Modern China”

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.

30 Nov 2012

Lecture by Prof Hsiung Ping-chen at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

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.

13 Nov 2012

Lecture by Prof Hsiung Ping-chen at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

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”.

1 – 3 November 2012

The 10th Meeting of the Asian New Humanities Net (ANHN)

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.

31 October 2012

Min-Yue Cultural Symposium at National Ch’ang Kung University

“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.

29 – 30 October 2012

The Health and Humanities Symposium at the National Taiwan University

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.

25 Oct 2012

Keynote Speech at Fu Jen Catholic University (FJCU)

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.

24 Oct 2012

Lecture at Fu Jen Catholic University (FJCU)

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.

24 Oct 2012

Lecture at Fu Jen Catholic University (FJCU)

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.

15 Oct 2012

Lecture at Brown University

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.

18 – 20 September 2012

Visit of the National Central University

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.

4 – 6 September 2012

Visit of the Shanghai Jiaotong University

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.

31 August – 2 September 2012

The Academic Conference on Body and Cognition

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.

29 Jun 2012

Lecture at Nanjing University (NJU)

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).

11 – 16 June 2012

The Annual and Board Meeting of Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)

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.

8 June 2012

Visit of the University of Leeds

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.

22 May 2012

Lecture by Prof Hsiung Ping-chen at The University of Hong Kong

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.

19 May 2012

Keynote Speech at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)

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.

18 – 19 May 2012

Visit to the National Cheng Kung University

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.

18 May 2012

Lecture at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)

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.

12 May 2012

Concluding Address at the University of Oregon

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.

11 – 13 May 2012

Conference on Women, Law and Belief in Ancient and Medieval China

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.

07 May 2012

Lecture by Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen at University of Washington, Seattle

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.

28 April – 12 May 2012

Visit to the States and Lecture at the University of Washington

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.

12 April 2012

Film and Environment Symposium

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.

11 and 23 April 2012

Opening Ceremonies of the Bilateral Research Centers

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.

30 March – 2 April 2012

Visit of Prof Robert Lee, Brown University

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.

19 March 2012

Lecture by Prof Michael Steinberg

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.

15 March 2012

Lecture by Professor Wang Ayling: Mission and Vision

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.

14 March 2012

「劉勰《文心雕龍》之文學本質論及其玄學基礎」講座

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.

10 March 2012

「觀音信仰與漢傳佛教」講座

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.

6 March 2012

Lecture by Prof Maria Zlateva

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.

6 March 2012

Talks on Buddhism by Professor Yu Chun-fang

28 February 2012

Lecture by Prof Rosemary O’Day

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.

27 February 2012

Symposium by Prof Robert Gurval, Prof Poo Mu-chou and Prof Lee Ou-fan

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.

23 February 2012

Lecture by Prof Robert Gurval

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.

17 - 21 February 2012 and 23 - 27 March 2012

Visit to Taiwan Academy

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.

18 - 21 January 2012

Visit of Prof Lather von Faulkenhausen, UCLA

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.

NEWS AND EVENTS

What's On

The Evidence of the Small: Digital Historical Forensics in Wartime Chinese Visual Culture

From the Individual to the Dividual: In Search of the Real Self in Contemporary Japanese Literature

Speaker: Angela Yiu (Professor, Sophia University)

Date: Nov. 4, 2026 (Wed) Time: 3:30–5:00 pm (Tea reception to follow the lecture.) Place: Arts & Humanities Hub (G/F, Fung King Hey Building), CUHK

Registration Link (please register by 25 October)

Perspectives on AI & Humanities from Young Researchers

Weirding AI workshop and performance by Halim Madi

01 Workshop Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2026 Time: 3:30 -5:30 PM Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F, University Library, CUHK Quota: 30 seats

02 Performance Date: Thursday, 5 November 2026 Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F University Library

Workshop Series on Frontiers in Linguistics organised by Tsinghua University & UKCHA

Cross Cultural Analytics: Using Big Data, Large Language Models, Knowledge Graphs and Rare Books to Chart the Influence of Chinese Culture in the West, 1550–1800

Counterpoint: Reading the Understudied

FAQ: CUHK Humanities Collegium

Archaeological Science in Hong Kong

Hyperlink to the project website

Project team

Project objectives

Project brief description

Past Events

How to Remember, Sonically? Affective Situated Listening in Two Digital Poetic Sound Works: Memory Loops (2008) and Audio.Space.Machine (2019)

Photo-Literary Practice: Poetry, Sites, Attention, and the Irreducible

About the workshop

Programme

Registration:

Talk Abstracts and Speaker Bios

A Mosque by Any Other Name: (Un-)Official Islamic Places of Worship in Hong Kong

History+AI: The Promise and Peril of LLMs to Historical Research

A Violent Display: Tracing the Origins of an Unidentified Man in a Museum

How to write your Dissertation and make it easier to publish

From Dissertation to Publication

Seeking Out Vanishing Tongues: Culture, Cognition & Endangered Poetry

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship 2026

Digital Humanities Initiative

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship 24 – 28 August 2026

More Than Markup: Texts, Languages, and New Research Directions at Oxford

Seeing Data Differently: My Oxford Summer School Experience

Call for Proposals – Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Call for proposal – Research Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Reading Group

Being One Body with All Things: A Confucian Worldview

Being One Body with All Things: A Confucian Worldview by Prof. Peng Guoxiang

The Virtual Mountain Estate Project: XR and the Remediation of an Early Modern Chinese Landscape

Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World

Books and Their Readers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean World

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2026 Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

Speaker: Joshua Ehrlich (Department of History, University of Macau)

Digital Humanities Methods and Translation History

Advances in Digital Heritage Documentation across Contexts of Warfare, Destruction, and Change

Postgraduate Career Development Workshop – Success on the Job Market:

How to publish in a Top-Tier English Language Journal

Postgraduate Workshop on AI in the Humanities

Trapped Precarities, Liminal Resistances: The Case of Racial Minority Gig Workers in Hong Kong

HKADH 2026 Conference Keynote Speakers

HKADH 2026 Interactive Workshops

Text and Data Mining for Chinese Historical Texts

Date: Friday, 23 January 2026 Time: 12:30 – 14:00 Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK

Instructor: Prof. Donald STURGEON, Department of Computer Science, Durham University

How to Make Research Software with AI: Documentation as Software

Date: Saturday, 24 January 2026 Time: 12:30 – 14:00 Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK

Instructor: Prof. Bo AN, History Department, Lingnan University

Registration Link: https://shorturl.at/SFzIG

HKADH 2026 Conference

Hong Kong Association for Digital Humanities Conference 2026 (HKADH 2026)

Key Event Highlights

Conference Theme

Keynote Speakers

Participation and Reach

Record Turnout:

International Representation:

Programme Highlights

Extensive Programming:

Research Focus:

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2026 -2028

Visualising Translation (Studies): How to Enhance Historiographical Knowledge with Digital Methods

Artificial Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Research Framework For AI

A What is “New”? Evaluating Generative AI Across Disciplines event

Quantitative Study of Chinese Ceramic Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 800-1900 AD

Digital Feminisms in Asia: Cultural Studies Postgraduate Symposium

A Digital Feminisms in Asia interdisciplinary research project event

Date: Nov. 4, 2026 (Wed)
Time: 3:30–5:00 pm (Tea reception to follow the lecture.)
Place: Arts & Humanities Hub (G/F, Fung King Hey Building), CUHK

01 Workshop
Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2026
Time: 3:30 -5:30 PM
Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F, University Library, CUHK
Quota: 30 seats

02 Performance
Date: Thursday, 5 November 2026
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Venue: Innovation Zone, LG/F University Library

Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School Scholarship
24 – 28 August 2026

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2026
Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

Date: Friday, 23 January 2026
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK

Date: Saturday, 24 January 2026
Time: 12:30 – 14:00
Place: User Education Room, University Library, CUHK