Humanities and Social Sciences Panel (General Research Fund and Other Funding Schemes for Individual Research)
(as at 9 December 2025)
Member Sphere of Interest
Chairman
Professor Gigi Luk* Interests in bilingualism, cognitive development, lifespan development, neuroimaging
Deputy Panel Chairman
Professor Paul Clark* Interests in Contemporary Chinese popular culture, including film and the Cultural Revolution; Contemporary Chinese history
Sub-Panel Chairman
Professor Hua Zhu* Interests in multilingual and intercultural communication and child language
Professor Weiping Wu* Interests in urbanization and migration, urban development and policy, urban infrastructure
Members
Professor Cecilia Alvstad* Interests in literary translation studies, Latin American literature, and literary translation ethics
Professor Brian James Baer* Interests in theory and practice of translation and cross-cultural communication
Professor Jake Bowers* Interests in political methodology, applied statistics, and political behavior
Professor Ivica Ico Bukvic* Interests in Immersive Audio, Sonification, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Recontextualizing STEM K-12 Education, Arts + Health
Professor Shirley Chan* Interests in Sinology, Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese philosophy, ancient Chinese texts and intellectual history, Chinese excavated texts
Professor Lei Chen* Interests in Comparative private law and international arbitration
Professor Sylvia Xiaohua Chen Interests in personality and social psychology; cultural psychology
Professor May Hung May Cheng Interests in Teacher education and Science education
Professor Alan Cheung Interests in Education Marketization, Higher Education, Quantitative methods, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, School Evaluation, Educational Technology
Professor Sin Yi Cheung* Interests in Migration and refugee integration
Professor May Bo Ching Interests in Social and Cultural History of Modern China, History of South China, Historical Anthropology
Professor Iris Chiu* Interests in Philosophy, Commercial law, Law in context, Private law and civil obligations
Professor Kee Lee Chou Interests in Geriatric psychiatry, Elderly-related policies, Population policy especially immigrant policy, Poverty, welfare reform, income, educational, as well as health inequality and health policy
Professor Bonnie Wing-Yin Chow* Interests in Developmental psychology, with an emphasis on language and literacy development and second language and foreign language learning
Professor Peichi Chung Interests in Game studies, play culture, cultural studies, new media studies, political economy of communication, cultural and creative industries, cultural policy
Professor Joanne Conaghan* Interests in Tort, legal aspects of sexual violence, labour and equality law, jurisprudence and legal theory, human rights, feminism and gender studies
Professor Cees de Bont* Interests in Management, PhD supervision, Strategic Design
Professor Ronald Egan* Interests in Chinese Poetry, Song dynasty Poetry and literati Culture, the social and historical context of Song dynasty aesthetics
Professor Lianghuo Fan* Interests in Teacher education and professional development in mathematics, Curriculum studies and textbook research in mathematics, Mathematics teaching, learning and assessment
Professor Ruiping Fan Interests in bioethics and health care policy, confucian ethics and politics, and comparative philosophy
Professor Tim Forsyth* Interests in Southeast and South Asia (India; Indonesia; Laos; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Thailand; Vietnam); climate change; environmental policy; social studies of science; social movements and environment; institution and governance
Professor Colin Foster* Interests in mathematics education focus on the learning and teaching of mathematics in ways that support students’ conceptual understanding
Professor Anthony Ying-Him Fung Interests in creative/ cultural industries and cultural policy, popular culture, youth culture and cultural studies, and global media and communication with a particular focus on Chinese and Asian media
Professor Xuesong Andy Gao* Interests in International students’ educational experiences, language learner agency, language and literacy education, language education policy, and language teacher education
Professor Anne Gerritsen* Interests in material culture in history, food and food cultures in Asia and Europe, theory and methods of history, and gender
Professor Stuart Gietel-Basten Interests in Population and policy, with a regional focus on Asia
Professor Nan Greenwood* Interests in older people, carers, dementia and stroke, ethnic and cultural diversity
Professor Minkang Gu, JP Interests in Comparative Company Law, Comparative Competition Law, Social Credit Law and Criminal Justice
Professor John Haddad* Interests in Ways Americans learned about China in the nineteenth century: museum exhibits, trade objects, travel writing, missionary literature, international expositions, magic lantern shows, and moving pictures
Professor Wen-Jui Han* Interests in Social welfare policy, with an emphasis on children and families; effects of maternal employment and child care on children's cognitive and social and emotional outcomes; impact of welfare reform and child care subsidies on families; precarious parental work, parental work schedules, and child well-being; cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes of children in immigrant families; quantitative research methods; use of large-scale longitudinal data
Professor William Hayward Interests in Cognitive, psychology and cognitive neuroscience, specifically in visual perception of faces and objects, and visual attention
Professor Richard Weixing Hu* Interests in politics and public policy, international political economy, China and East Asian international relations, China’s foreign relations, and Hong Kong, Macau and Greater China Studies
Professor Yi-Hui Christine Huang Interests in Strategic communication management in Chinese societies, Risk communication in health and technology, Crisis communication and management, Relationship management and conflict resolution, Cross-cultural communication
Professor Siu-yung Morris Jong Interests in e-Learning, Mobile Gamified Learning, VR/XR in Education, AI/ STEM Education, Teacher Professional Development on Technology-Enhanced Pedagogies
Professor Thanos Karatzias* Interests in Psychological trauma, PTSD, CPTSD, traumatic life events, impact of traumatic life events on health and well being
Professor Rebecca Karl* Interests in Modern China; Intellectual history; women and gender
Professor Kevin Kester* Interests in higher education in conflict-affected contexts; the global governance of education, conflict and peace; the intersections of peace education and global citizenship education; and critical approaches to education (de/postcolonial and postmodern thought, and critical pedagogy)
Professor Suk-Young Kim* Interests in East Asian Performance and Visual Culture, Gender and Nationalism, Korean Cultural Studies, Russian Literature and Slavic Folklore
Professor Daniel Wing Leung Lai Interests in gerontology, healthy aging, caregiving, mental health, community development, cross-cultural practice, immigration, culture and ethnicity, outcome evaluation, and policy review
Professor Jennifer Lau* Interests in Adolescent anxiety and depression, Cognitive biases, Neural substrates of adolescent emotion regulation, Adolescent chronic pain, loneliness
Professor Kimberly J Lau* Interests in Feminist Theory and Gender Studies; Embodiment, Affect, and Identity; Fairy tales, Folklore, and Fantasy; Virtual Worlds; Popular Culture; Discourse Analysis and Ethnographic Methods
Professor Patrick Wing Chung Lau Interests in exercise & overweight children’s behavioral modification and Olympic studies
Professor Tatia Mei-chun Lee Interests in Neuropsychology and human neuroscience, focusing on the neuroplastic underpinnings of neurocognitive and affective functions, especially applicable for older people
Professor Angela Y.M. Leung Interests in Health literacy and health promotion, Technology and aging, Chronic illness prevention, Dementia care, Gerontological nursing
Professor Vincent S. Leung Interests in Intellectual and political history of early China, Historiography and imperialism in early China, Rise of empires in ancient Eurasia, Critical theories and historical methods
Professor Jie Li* Interests in Mediation of memories in modern China
Professor Yu-li Liu* Interests in Communication Law and Ethics, Policy and Regulations of New Media, Media and Communication in the Digital Age, New Media in Greater China, Media Business Model and Marketing Strategy, The Ecology of Telecommunications and Media and Convergence: Opportunities and Challenges
Professor Zhilin Liu* Interests in Urban Policy and Governance, Housing Policy, Urban Social Geography, Sustainable Development, New Institutionalism Theory
Professor K.K. Luke* Interests in interaction between tone and intonation; prosody in conversational interaction; conversation analysis; English and Chinese grammar; Chinese Linguistics; history and structure of Cantonese; language and cognitive neuroscience; corpus linguistics; natural language processing
Professor Zhao Ma* Interests in Chinese modern history, Urban culture, Women's studies, Film, Politics
Professor Catherine Mills* Interests in ethical issues in human reproduction, especially from the perspective of how new reproductive technologies impact on women
Professor Paul Montgomery* Interests in Methodology of Psycho-Social Intervention, Studies and trials related to Behavioural Interventions
Professor Tejaswini Niranjana* Interests in Digital Cultural Studies, Gender and sexuality in Asia, Cultural and social history of Indian music, Music pedagogy; Bilingualism in higher education, Performance studies and performance theory
Professor Michael O’Sullivan* Interests in Comparative literature, humanities education, modernism, phenomenology & literature, literature & philosophy, Irish studies, the philosophy of education, literature and emotions, Michel Henry and James Joyce
Professor Diane Pecorari* Interests in Educational linguistics, English for Academic Purposes and Aspects of second language writing, including source use and intertextuality
Professor Jenny Phillimore* Interests in Access to health, education, employment, training, and housing integration
Professor Anna Puigjaner* Interests in how gender biases are empowered through the built environment, in particular through the relation between domesticity and care
Professor Claire Roberts* Interests in Modern and contemporary Chinese art; the historiography of Chinese art; the history of photography in China; creative flows between China and the world, and between Australia and Asia
Professor James Robson* Interests in History of medieval Chinese Buddhism and Daoism and is particularly interested in issues of sacred geography, local religious history, talismans, and Chan/Zen Buddhism
Professor Shiho Satsuka* Interests in Politics of knowledge, cultural translation, nature, science, environment, capitalism, tourism, work, commons, subjectivity
Professor Andrew Scharlach* Interests in Systems of Care for Children/ Families/ Older Adults, Aging Policies, Programs and Services, Aging-Friendly Communities, Family Caregiving, Work/ Family Issues, Death, Dying and Bereavement
Professor Xun Shi* Interests in Geographic information systems (GIS), quantitative spatial analysis and modeling, and the geocomputational approach
Professor James Simpson Interests in Language and migration, language education, multilingualism, language policy, creative inquiry in applied linguistics
Professor Kin Wai Michael Siu Interests in Public Design, User Reception, Inclusive Design, Participatory Design, Public Design and Health, Design and Engineering Education
Professor Lois M. Takahashi* Interests in Public and social service delivery to vulnerable populations in the U.S. and in Southeast Asian cities
Professor Beibei Tang* Interests in Local governance, social stratification and state-society relations in urban China
Professor Hongyin Tao* Interests in Mandarin discourse and grammar, applied linguistics, social and cultural linguistics, corpus linguistics. Co-editor of the journal Chinese Language and Discourse and Executive Editor of its companion book series, Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, both with the John Benjamins Publishing Company
Professor Cynthia K. Thompson* Interests in Normal and disordered language and how language recovers in persons with brain damage
Professor George Tsai* Interests in Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Moral Psychology, Chinese Philosophy, Comparative Philosophy
Professor Chi Shing Tse Interests in autobiographical memory, conceptual metaphor, Chinese word recognition (with Megastudy approach)
Professor Fahui Wang* Interests in Spatially-integrated social sciences, public policy and planning (S3P3)
Professor Hongying Wang* Interests in globalization, global governance, international political economy, Chinese politics and Chinese political economy
Professor Ping Wang* Interests in Chinese, Intellectual History, Literature, Medieval, Philology, Poetry and Poetics, Translation and Interpretation
Professor Ming Wen Interests in social determinants of health & well-being, midlife health and mortality, aging and the life course, child development, urban sociology and migration
Professor Tobias Wolbring* Interests in analytical sociology, economic sociology (with special focus on life satisfaction, Matthew effects, and social status), evaluation of research and teaching (in education and higher education), methods of social research (especially causal inference, DAGs, evaluations, experiments, and longitudinal data analysis), social inequality and discrimination (with special focus on physical characteristics, gender, and social status), and social norms/deviance
Professor David Wong* Interests in Population, spatial statistics, Geography of China, Thoughts and Methodology
Professor Laurence James Wood* Interests in Practice based research in Visual Arts, Pictorial 'space' and notions of 'place' and Art and Design curriculum in Higher Education
Professor Chao Xi Interests in Chinese Law, Corporate Law and Governance, Securities Regulation, Financial Regulation, Empirical Legal Studies
Professor Dannii Yeung Interests in Aging and work, with emphases on emotional well-being of middle-aged workers, and psychological adjustment to retirement
Professor Lu Yu Interests in positive youth development, quality of life and wellbeing, mental health and behavioral addiction, and family studies
Professor Danhui Zhang* Interests in Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Longitudinal Data Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling
Professor Meilan Zhang Interests in the history of Chinese language: the Chan Language; the vocabulary and syntax of Early Modern Chinese Language; Textual collation and criticism on Early Modern Chinese; World history of Chinese Language Education; the Historical Evolution of Common Words in Chinese
Secretary
Ms Milly Ng Assistant Secretary General (Research)1, UGC

*Non-local Members