

Research Projects
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures has an active research culture that draws Faculty and Graduate Students into collaborative projects.
Our key research interests are in the cultural, anthropological, political, philosophical, historical and literary aspects of diverse countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
We explore the ancient, modern and contemporary contexts of social and cultural change around the globe and publish our research in diverse languages of the world.
This breadth of regions, languages, cultures and disciplines is the foundation of the School’s research strength in interdisciplinary and comparative research projects.
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures has:
• a vibrant research seminar series (all welcome) that operates during university semesters
• an active research mentoring program for HKU academic colleagues and graduate students.
• regular international conferences and workshops.
• faculty with publications in top academic journals and with prestigious publishing houses

RGC General Research Fund (GRF) Exercise
Title | Staff Name | Start date | End date | amount |
---|---|---|---|---|
Middlebrow Literature and Feminist Imagination: Towards A New Genealogy of the Novel in Korea, 1930-1960 | Kim, Su Yun | |||
Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of Hong Kong, 1930s-1998 | Wong, John D.O. | 2020 | 2023 | |
The EU and the global ‘tech war’: how contestation over digital technologies is reconfiguring European diplomacy, security and regulatory activity’ | Vogt, Roland | 2021 | 2023 | |
The Politics of Japanese Popular Culture in China (1980s - present) | October 1, 2019 | September 30, 2022 | 738585 | |
Japanese Popular Culture and the Cultural Formation of Hong Kong Society | October 1, 2017 | September 30, 2019 | 596000 | |
The Cultural Policies in Taiwan in the 20th Century and their Relationships to the Formation of Modern Taiwanese Consciousness | December 1, 2013 | May 31, 2016 | 310500 | |
Between norm entrepreneurship and norm coercion: the influence of European policies on tax evasion on Asian financial centres | Vogt, Roland | January 1, 2017 | April 30, 2020 | 145500 |
Showcases of New Tokyo: Modern Architecture, Space, and Social Management in the Reconstructed Capital, 1923-1930 | January 1, 2014 | December 31, 2016 | 190000 | |
Endangered Icon: A Postwar History of Japan's Efforts to Save the "Sacred Crane" from the Brink of Extinction | June 28, 2021 | June 28, 2024 | 305000 | |
Cinematic Virtual Reality: Defining the Language of a New Medium | Gruenewald, Tim | September 1, 2019 | August 31, 2021 | 262299 |
Making Religion, Making Local Society: The Social History of a Catholic Village in Northeast China | Li, Ji | January 1, 2016 | November 30, 2017 | 627340 |
Christianity on the Move: Routes and Religious Mobility in Late Imperial and Modern China from 1750s to 1950s
| Li, Ji | January 1, 2021 | December 31, 2023 | 604938 |
Bottling Goodness: Culture and Commerce in Layered Identities of Dairy and Soy Beverages along the Periphery of China under Western Influences | Wong, John D.O. | October 1, 2017 | September 30, 2021 | 477870 |
Borderless Europe and its Discontents: National Sovereignty in Times of Crisis
| Auer, Stefan | January 1, 2017 | June 30, 2019 | 60000 |
Tea's Party. Tea in the American Revolution, 1773-1776 | Fichter, James | September 1, 2018 | August 31, 2021 | 288640 |
Medicalising Ethiopia | September 1, 2019 | February 28, 2023 | 346990 | |
GRF : A Native History of Early Modern Amuria | Kim, Loretta | January 1, 2013 | June 30, 2016 | 293700 |
Weaving Onomastic Tapestries: Corpus-Building and Analysis of Non-Chinese Names in Northeastern China, 1368-1948 | Kim, Loretta | January 1, 2018 | April 15, 2021 | 273000 |
United Through Separation: Foreign Missionaries, Korean Christians, and Government Officials, 1882-1942 | Cha, Paul S.K. | September 1, 2016 | February 29, 2020 | 404500 |
RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS) Exercise
Title | Staff Name | Start date | End date | amount |
---|---|---|---|---|
Early Career Scheme Award from Research Grants Council, Government of Hong Kong | Poch, Daniel Taro | 2016 | 2017 | 450000 |
Traumatic Histories and the National Imagination: Narrative Construction in National Memory Museums in the United States | Gruenewald, Tim | July 1, 2016 | April 30, 2019 | 340000 |
Negotiating Spirituality and Urban Space in Jiangbeicheng: Local History, Religion and the Making of Modern China | Li, Ji | January 1,2018 | June 30, 2021 | 523056 |
Production of Popular Fiction: Romance and Family Themes in Modern and Contemporary Korea | Kim, Su Yun | December 1, 2014 | May 30, 2018 | |
Epidemic Disease and Medical Innovation in Early Modern Japan | January 1, 2017 | June 30, 2020 | 378600 | |
Inventing Lives: Fictional Artistic Practice in the Shadow of Cold War Hollywood | Steinberg, Monica | January 1, 2021 | December 31, 2023 | 474000 |
Prestigious Fellowships
Title | Staff Name | Start date | End date | amount |
---|---|---|---|---|
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship | |||
Abe Fellow, ocial Science Research Council, American Council of Learned Societies, and The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership | Abe Fellow, ocial Science Research Council, American Council of Learned Societies, and The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership | 1999 | ||
Asia Leadership Fellow, nternational House of Japan and The Japan Foundation Asia Center | Asia Leadership Fellow, nternational House of Japan and The Japan Foundation Asia Center | 2003 | ||
Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, Tokyo Univeristy | Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, Tokyo Univeristy | 2015 & 2019 | ||
German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) Study Fellowship | German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) Study Fellowship | 1999 | 2005 | |
German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship | German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship | 2002 | 2003 | 62500 |
Canon Foundation in Europe Research Fellowship | Canon Foundation in Europe Research Fellowship | 2010 | 2011 | 265000 |
Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship | Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Fellowship | 2011 | 2012 | 367800 |
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship | 2016 | 2017 | 306000 |
Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London | Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London | 2010 | 2010 | |
Teaching Exchange Fellowship, University of Queensland | Teaching Exchange Fellowship, University of Queensland | 2022 | 2022 | |
Doris Zimmern HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall Fellowship, University of Cambridge | Doris Zimmern HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall Fellowship, University of Cambridge | 2017 | 2017 | |
King's/HKU Fellowship Awards 2019-20 | King's/HKU Fellowship Awards 2019-20 | August 31, 2018 | Auguest 31, 2021 | 50000 |