2017 - 2019 REPORT
Expanding Global Network
The Institute has a mission to promote innovative, cross-disciplinary scholarship in a global context. Over the years, we have developed global strategic partnerships, and have continued to enlarge these networks through research activities and collaboration.
In addition to long-term partners such as Yale University, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Social Science Research Council (New York), National University of Singapore, and Peking University, the Institute’s two aforementioned CRF Projects have created new partnerships with global institutions such as the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Heidelberg University, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS), Needham Research Institute (NRI), Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva), Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), Academia Sinica, Duke University’s East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (EASTS), the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, Singapore Management University (SMU), and Chonbuk National University in South Korea (see Global Multi-Year Partnerships).
We are grateful to the University and private donors for supporting the Institute’s efforts in bringing to Hong Kong our partners, world renowned scholars, as well as young talents whose expertise may not be readily available in the local community. In the past three years, senior scholars from the United States, Europe, and Asia visited the Institute with support from the University’s Visiting Research Professorship Scheme and the Sin Wai-Kin Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme, as well as the Hung Leung Hau Ling Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme and the Institutional Enhancement Scheme established by generous donors. Distinguished scholars gave public lectures, taught seminar courses, mentored students and young scholars, while engaging in the work and projects of the Institute’s research clusters during their stay in the Institute. Their partnerships with the Institute have continued after their tenure.
Eight professors have visited the Institute in the past three years:
NUS and HKU
Princeton University
Yale University
Oxford University
Cornell University
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Université de Neuchâtel
University of Colorado Boulder
Eight professors have visited the Institute in the past three years:
NUS and HKU
Cornell University
Princeton University
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Yale University
Université de Neuchâtel
Oxford University
University of Colorado Boulder
We also thank Dr. Sin Wai-Kin (冼為堅博士) for his generosity to the Institute for establishing the Sin Wai-Kin Junior Fellowship. Since 2011, this scheme has allowed us to groom junior colleagues and advanced graduate students from the University. It also enables us to subsidize the visits of junior scholars from overseas who share the Institute’s research interests. Over time, we have seen an emerging global network of the younger generation attached to the Institute. We have every reason to believe that their long-term impact in producing leadership in Hong Kong’s tertiary education will be immense.
Scholars who were awarded the Sin Wai-Kin Junior Fellowship continue to work with the Institute regardless of their whereabouts. Awardees in the past three years include: Mr. George Bayuga (Anthropology, Yale University), Ms. Dorothy Tang (Architecture, MIT), Dr. Nina Sylvanus (Anthropology, Northeastern University), Dr. Christine Luk (History of Science, Tsinghua University in Beijing), Dr. Till Mostowlansky (Anthropology, Graduate Institute Geneva), Dr. Loretta Kim, Dr. John D. Wong, Dr. Ji Li, Dr. Daniel Trambaiolo, Dr. Max Hirsh, Dr. Izumi Nakayama, and Dr. Cheris Chan (all are from HKU) (see List of Projects 2017-2019).
