Clara Wing-chung HO

Head and Professor 

Department of History

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August 28, 2020

The 2019-20 academic year was a very unusual and difficult one. Social unrest and the global pandemic seriously hampered on-campus teaching and learning, as well as face-to-face scholarly events.  As we enter AY 2020-21, the virus is still not contained, so we will open the fall with online classes and with non-local students outside Hong Kong. Still, we hope for a speedy return to normal. 

Although we experienced many challenges last year, both faculty members and students adapted, and all courses were completed without giving up the standard quality of teaching and learning. Although many scholarly activities were postponed or cancelled, the Department successfully delivered three international conferences, including one fully online, a book launch, and several seminars. Owing to the pandemic, a lot of international conferences were cancelled, and it is unavoidable that our faculty members’ attendance at scholarly events outside Hong Kong dropped this year.  However, members have engaged in more than 110 individual research activities, including publishing journal articles and books, giving physical or online presentations, and serving as chairs or discussants.  At the moment faculty members are conducting a total of 32 projects, mainly externally sponsored.  The Department is proud that 4 members were successful in securing GRF (General Research Fund) grants this year, making a success rate at 80%.  Within the past academic year, our members formed two teams to win two sizeable QEF (Quality Education Fund) projects that altogether were granted nearly HK$3m to work on applying 3D models of artifacts and interactive maps to secondary school education. Another team also won an ICHFS (Intangible Cultural Heritage Funding Scheme) project of nearly HK$1.4m to work on the Pok Fu Lam Fire Dragon Dance.  Besides, the Department is excited to receive a HK$1m research funding from the new RMGS (Research Matching Grant Scheme) launched by RGC, which was a one-to-one matching of a sizeable donation offered by one of our long-term supporters.  Moreover, it is very encouraging that one colleague was elected Fellow of Advance HE (UK) while another colleague was awarded a research fellowship offered by the MacLean Collection Map Library in Chicago.  In terms of staff promotion, the past academic year was a fruitful one, as we congratulated two Assistant Professors on promotion to Associate Professors, one Lecturer I on promotion to Senior Lecturer, and one Lecturer II on promotion to Lecturer I.  Five of our members received Long Service Awards this year, and fortunately the university-level ceremony took place in June, before Hong Kong was attacked by the third wave of COVID-19 in July.

Our students in all programs continue to invest great efforts in their study.  In AY 2019-20, our students won about 60 scholarships and prizes. The Department is grateful that after the establishment of two more endowment scholarships donated by a past faculty member in AY 2019-20, our scholarship opportunities dedicated to our majors have perfectly covered winners of both SGPA and CGPA, across all years and semesters.  The Department is now blessed with 26 endowment scholarships/prizes that give 31 annual awards in total.  In AY 2019-20, 18 students participated in exchange programs and studied outside Hong Kong for one or two semesters, although the spring semester was cut short in some countries owing to the pandemic.  Fourteen students completed internships off-campus, and 5 students were sponsored by the University’s Undergraduate Research Program (UGRP) to work as student research assistants for individual research projects during the summer.  In accordance with the value the Department places upon the voices of students, an online questionnaire was designed in lieu of the usual Faculty-Student Consultative Meeting this year.  In addition, the Honors Project Briefing was also shifted to online because of the special circumstances.

In last year’s message, I mentioned our plans to establish the History Alumni Association.  Given the COVID-19 development and the continuous need for social distancing, this plan has been delayed, but preparations will resume as soon as the situation allows.  Our family bond with alumni will continue to grow, and we are ever grateful for their generous support. 

While we witness the graduation of 71 majors in various programs and 31 history minors (subject to final update in September), we also welcome 68 undergraduates (sophomores, senior-year entrants, and transferred students) and a PhD student who have just joined the History family.  Whereas we bade farewell to a long-serving professor in September last year, we welcomed a newly joined Lecturer and an Assistant Professor in January and July this year respectively.  New faces for the fall semester also include two new part-time Lecturers and several new research support staff.  The Department was fortunate to be allocated extra space to form a new wing of office rooms, and will also embark on new teaching initiatives such as launching six new Level-3 GE capstone courses (GCAP), some with support from internal Service-learning grants and Students-as-partners funding.  We look forward to working with students.

Wishing everyone excellent health and a very successful year ahead.

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