I am pleased to share with you the recent exciting developments of the Faculty of Humanities. Starting in academic year 2025-26, the majority of our undergraduate students will undertake double majors. Whether they will be studying BEd in English Language + BA in English Studies and Digital Communication, or BEd in Chinese History + BA in Heritage Education and Arts Management, our graduates will be much more equipped to engage in a wider career path. Our newly launched BA in Digital Chinese Culture and Communication will bring about a similar interdisciplinary breath that will allow the graduates to engage in a wide variety of cultural work in the age of Digital China. In all, FHM is committed to ensure that our graduates will find fruitful and meaningful employment in the education sector and far beyond.
At the research front, we recently launched a new funding scheme on Cross-disciplinary and Cross-departmental Research Award that supports the true nature and scope of humanities research that always looks to break new ground through engaging in the complexity of human, social, cultural, and environmental affairs in our world today. Speaking of cross-disciplinary humanities research, our flagship faculty-wide research programs – Digital Humanities, Comparative Cultures of Care, and The Sustainable Humanities – continue to thrive through intellectual debates and publications, community learning through partnership with NGOs on care and sustainability projects, classroom innovations to organically develop a pedagogy of care, and so on. The CCC project has also received positive coverage in the local media.
By following the government’s call to increase admission of non-local students, FHM has welcomed new students from Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, Mainland China, and so on. The Faculty has also struck new pathways of collaboration in the One Belt One Road framework, including launching a flagship event on “Hong Kong meets Kazakhstan: A Humanities Cultural Crossroads with the Belt & Road” in December 2024 and a new pioneering research project to explore musical artistic creativity and cultural authenticity in the OBOR musical traditions. Meanwhile, we are taking steps to integrate COIL into many of our courses with partners in Finland, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Germany, and so on.
In February 2025, FHM held its first-ever SDGs Retreat. Gathered in the serene environment of the Green Hub run by the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Gardens, our retreat opened a wide-ranging discussion among the key leaders across the Faculty on how to bring sustainability to the heart of what do. To us, it means thinking rigorously on how our teaching, research, international work, and knowledge sharing can bring about social, cultural, and human-nonhuman environmental sustainability. Some of this energy will be brought to the “Dialectics of Care” conference to be held in the summer of 2025 and the “Sustainable Humanities” conference to be held in the spring of 2026.
At FHM, we put innovation, interdisciplinarity, diversity, and sustainability at the heart of we do.
Warm regards,
Professor John Erni
Dean, Faculty of Humanities