03-05-2024
Interview with Qiaona Jiang
By Ruyu Yan Between Shanghai and Hong Kong, photo by Qiao Na Qiaona Jiang is a second-year PhD candidate. Her research focuses on the gatekeeping requirements of mainland Chinese MBA admission interviews. Drawing on her previous experience as an MBA admission interview trainer in Shanghai, sh...Click here for more details. 03-05-2024Interview with Dr. Otto Heim: Part Two
By Khadija Azhar and Luisa Wan This is part two of our interview with Dr. Otto Heim, the Director of the Master of Arts in English Studies programme at HKU. Previously, we discussed Dr. Heim’s extensive academic career and his thoughts on teaching. As he spoke about the extensive reading that ...Click here for more details. 03-05-2024The Third International Conference of MSIA: “Modernism between Past and Future”
By Jisu Bang The Modernist Studies in Asia Network (MSIA) is currently organizing its third international conference at HKU, scheduled to take place from May 1 to June 2. The primary objective of this conference is to support and advance the study of modernism in Asia. MSIA aims to provide a...Click here for more details. 04-03-2024Interview with Dr. Otto Heim: Part One
By Khadija Azhar and Luisa Wan Though we were well-aware of Dr. Otto Heim’s reputation as a passionate educator, it was only when we worked with him as teaching assistants that we truly understood the depth of his commitment to the craft. In the past few semesters, we not only had literal fron...Click here for more details. 04-03-2024The Year of Dragon
Download By Jisu Bang Happy Lunar New Year! For those reading this, I wish you all the best for the Year of the Dragon. During this time of year, millions of people around the world get excited for one of the biggest annual festivals – the Lunar New Year. But how much do we actually kno...Click here for more details. 04-03-2024Interview with Yufei Niu
Yufei Niu is a second-year PhD candidate who specializes in experimental phonetics. Her project focuses on the Mandarin tone acquisition of adult learners and the role of phonetic cues. She is particularly interested in the difference between second language learners and native speakers. How...Click here for more details. 05-01-2024Is the other a sign? A reading of Martin Buber
by Ruyu Yan In Martin Buber’s way of thinking, the minimal unit to discuss human existence is two: One steps into being in one’s relation to another. The presence of others is essential to our experience of the world. In one’s awareness, the existence of other persons is accompani...Click here for more details. 05-01-2024"We have all actually been tougher than we think"
by Jisu Bang It is that time, again, when we find ourselves approaching the end of the current year and eagerly anticipating the arrival of the next. Now is therefore an opportune moment for self-reflection and the setting of new goals and resolutions. The story I want to tell takes us ba...Click here for more details. 05-01-2024Interview with Rajesh Panhathodi
Rajesh Panhathodi is a soon-to-be MPhil graduate in the School of English. His research focuses on the depictions of transnational migration from India to the Middle East in cartoons/comics. In his recently-submitted thesis, Rajesh explores the themes of transnationalism, identity, and the comp...Click here for more details. 01-11-2023Mementoes of COEDA 2023 conference
Last month, the Coalition of English Departments in Asia (COEDA) held its sixth annual conference at the University of Hong Kong. This intellectual collaboration brought together faculty members and graduate students from English departments of top universities in East Asia, including Seoul Nat...Click here for more details. 01-11-2023Interview with Jisu Bang
Jisu Bang is a second-year MPhil candidate in the School of English, whose research interests lie in legal interpretation, the First Amendment, and the philosophy of rights. Jisu explores the textual ambiguity that arises from interpretations of legal terms. Currently, his project centers aroun...Click here for more details. 30-06-2023Interview with Professor Christopher Hutton
by Jisu Bang and Tingcong Lin Could you tell us about your area of research? I am currently working on the history of linguistics in relation to Aryan, and the impact of linguistics on India. Although I’m not an India specialist, I think it’s actually the most fascinating country in the w...Click here for more details. 30-06-2023A Year in Graduate School
by Shameera Nair Lin Before starting my first year as an MPhil candidate, I made an active vow to myself, where I sought to document as many memories as possible. When I made such a promise, of course, I had no idea any of these photos would be seen by an audience beyond my Instagram and Twitter...Click here for more details. 30-06-2023Presentations as performances, and beyond: A talk on applying to and presenting at conferences by Dr. Anjuli Gunaratne
by Tingcong Lin The School regularly organizes professionalization workshops, in which faculty members are invited to give talks on career-enhancement skills for postgraduate students. On May 10th, 2023, Dr. Anjuli Gunaratne was invited to give a talk on “Applying to and presenting at conferen...Click here for more details. 08-05-2023Interview with Felix Chow
Felix Chow is a first-year MPhil candidate in the School of English, whose project is an attempt at negotiating contemporary Hong Kong poetics. Apart from his work as a graduate researcher, Felix is a prolific presence on the Hong Kong poetry scene, where he assists in co-organising the monthly...Click here for more details. 08-05-2023A reflection on reflection; Or, a reflection on a reflection I did not end up writing
Reflections at Cloud Gate (aka the Bean) in Chicago by Luisa Wan As I was scrambling to put together my paper for the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association, I made a casual promise to my friend and the amazing editor of this magazine, Shameera Nair Lin, t...Click here for more details. 04-04-2023Interview with Dr. Sinead Kwok
Dr. Sinead Kwok's office desk.Photo credit: Dr. Sinead Kwok by Jisu Bang and Tingcong Lin Sinead Kwok is an early career researcher whose research interests lie in the philosophy of language and communication, the history of linguistics, semiology and semiotics, as well as translation. After ...Click here for more details. 04-04-2023Crossing the Finishing Line
Photo credit: Shameera Nair Lin by Shameera Nair Lin The story begins in the early nineties when my parents met at a hash run. A colonial-era tradition originating in Kuala Lumpur all the way back to the 1930s – which perhaps makes my current work as a postcolonial literary researcher even ...Click here for more details. 13-02-2023School of English Postgraduate Seminar Session: An Interview with Emily Rose Nicholls and Ahsan Md Firoz Mahmud
by Tingcong Lin The School of English research seminar series is a significant event for the School, an occasion when faculty and research postgraduate students gather to share and discuss their work, and sometimes to hear invited speakers (https://english.hku.hk/event/Seminar_Se...Click here for more details. 13-02-2023A non-local’s guide to HKU local hall culture
Photo credit: Jisu Bang by Jisu Bang Fiery speech, loud and hearty chants, stringent seniority system, a-week-long orientation for first year students, excessive demands for hall activities contributions. These features of HKU hall life often seem to intimidate non-local students who “resid...Click here for more details. 02-12-2022The Rise of Korean Films
Photo: Jeremy Yap/Unsplash by Jisu Bang In the past few years, a dramatic shift has occurred in the global film industry. Instead of Hollywood movies, many notable Korean films have become what we might label ‘mainstream’. Consider Parasite, receiving four different awards at the 2019 Ac...Click here for more details. 02-12-2022An Interview with Dr. Moonyoung Hong
by Shameera Nair Lin & Tingcong Lin 1. Tell us more about your work at HKU. I’m a full-time lecturer at HKU, so I’m teaching four courses this year, including a capstone course (“Imaginary Geographies: The Art of Writing Place,” “Imagining Asia,” “Worl...Click here for more details. 01-11-2022Interview with Dr. David Edmonds
by Jisu Bang David Edmonds is a sociolinguist, specializing in social interaction and interpersonal communication. He currently focuses on healthcare communication, with a special focus on interactions between doctors and patients in different medical settings. David obtained his PhD from CU...Click here for more details. 01-11-2022Notes to self on self-care from a psychology PhD student
Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash by Stephanie Ng “You must have the best self-care routine,” my friend remarked upon learning that I was pursuing a PhD in the field of psychology. This is a common assumption: the idea that our professions seamlessly translate into practical skills in ...Click here for more details. 09-09-2022A Reflection on Cats, Community and a little more
By Wan Lok Yee Luisa Meme-worthy brother-sister dynamic In particularly stressful times, just encountering a shop cat in the neighbourhood is enough to make my day. For many, spotting shop cats, or snapping a picture of them doing something silly, has become a way to keep spirits up in Hong K...Click here for more details. 09-09-2022Warriors of Future: Revamping the Hollywood of the Far East
By Lok Hang Vincent Chu Nearing the turn of the millennium, Hong Kong cinema saw an exodus of talent, one stream moving northwards to the Chinese market and another moving across the Pacific Ocean to Hollywood. It marked the end of three glorious decades when the local movie industry was kno...Click here for more details. 02-08-2022Photo Essay - On Seeing and Being Seen
By Khadija Azhar I don’t enjoy being visible. The vulnerability in being seen, in taking up space among other people, feels unnerving. My friends think that’s irrational, and I agree; strangers on the streets have places to be, and things to do. They’re probably not looking at me. Funni...Click here for more details. 02-08-2022As writers and artists, we have the ability to translate multiple perspectives: Interview with Sanaz Fotouhi
By Khadija Azhar, Lok Hang Vincent Chu, and Rajesh Panhathodi Sanaz Fotouhi was born in Iran soon after the revolution, during the Iran-Iraq war. Her father’s job as a banker took her and her family to many countries before she landed in Australia. Sanaz holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master o...Click here for more details. 31-05-2022Privileges Made Clear: A Reflection on Theatre Space During Lockdown
By Lok Hang Vincent Chu ‘All animals are equal but some…’ we know how that quote goes. Opportunities for theatre participation have never been equal in Hong Kong, but such privileges have been made clearer during lockdowns. Just as we have moved meetings and work online, theatre groups hav...Click here for more details. 31-05-2022Interview with Dr. Jessica Valdez
By Anneliese Ng and Tingcong Lin We are happy to have the opportunity to talk with Dr. Jessica Valdez, about the Nineteenth-Century Research Cluster she established, her interest in interdisciplinary research, and her memorable experiences at the School of English, HKU. Jessica founded the Ni...Click here for more details. 28-04-2022Interview with Dr. Hanwool Choe
By Khadija Azhar, Lok Hang Vincent Chu, and Rajesh Panhathodi Hanwool Choe is a discourse analyst who focuses on digital discourse, multimodal interaction, food discourse, and life stories. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., U.S.A. in 2020. She w...Click here for more details. 31-03-2022My Experience in the HKU Summer Research Programme
By Tingcong Lin Last summer, I participated in the 2021 HKU Summer Research Programme and was awarded a conditional offer for the HKU Presidential PhD Scholarship at the end of it. I would like to share my experience for the Alumni Magazine. After selection and enrollment, the Programme provi...Click here for more details. 31-03-2022Interview with Professor Adam Jaworski
By Khadija Azhar, Lok Hang Vincent Chu, and Rajesh Panhathodi Adam Jaworski obtained his MA (1979), PhD (1985), and DPhil (1991) in English sociolinguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, where he taught as Assistant Professor until 1991. Between 1991–1992 he was Lecturer at the Dep...Click here for more details. 01-03-2022Reflections on COVID-19 and mental health in Hong Kong
By Khadija Azhar At the tail-end of what has been a particularly long winter in Hong Kong, there is an uncomfortable silence hanging over the city. Yesterday, stepping out into the heart of Central, I almost felt accosted by the pervasive stillness, disturbed only by the spattering of raindrops ...Click here for more details. 01-03-2022Interview with Jackie Militello
By Anneliese Ng *The interview was conducted during the 20/21 academic year Formerly a student of the HKU-KCL joint PhD programme, Jackie is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of English. Having passed her PhD with flying colours in the summer of 2020, Jackie is now teaching on ...Click here for more details. 27-01-2022Review of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
By WU Tong Sixteen years after his first science-fiction-like novel Never Let Me Go (2005) was published, Kazuo Ishiguro revisits the future to produce Klara and the Sun (2021). Many things have changed during those sixteen years; the bland monologue of his latest protagonist evokes a sense of f...Click here for more details. 27-01-2022Interview with Dr. Claire Gullander-Drolet
By Khadija Azhar, Lok Hang Vincent Chu, and Rajesh Panhathodi Claire Gullander-Drolet earned her PhD in English from Brown University in 2019 and was a visiting assistant professor at Clark University during the 2019-2020 academic year. Her writings have appeared in The Journal of Transnational ...Click here for more details. 22-12-2021Interview with Dr. Anjuli Gunaratne
By Khadija Azhar, Lok Hang Vincent Chu, and Rajesh Panhathodi Anjuli Gunaratne grew up in Colombo, Sri Lanka and received her Ph.D. in English and the Interdisciplinary Humanities at Princeton University. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Hong Kong’s Society of Fe...Click here for more details.* New features for the month.