• Background and Structure
• Mission and Objectives

Background and Structure

In the last two decades or so the worlds of academic research and humanities have undergone significant changes. For research driven higher education institutes, the innovations in teaching and research needs to be better coordinated. New humanities disciplines have emerged to attract the attention of scholars and researchers. Research projects, on the other hand, have become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative.

Since its establishment in 1991, the RIH has been instrumental in realizing the following University missions:

• To serve as an independent and financially viable research arm of the University to enhance the performance of humanities research at CUHK; and
• To act as the University’s central point of research and intellectual inquiry in the development of arts and humanities.

In the foreseeable future, RIH will be seen playing a more pivotal role in fostering exchanges and collaborations, particularly cross-disciplinary exchanges with the potential to breed collaborative research projects or shed lights on new research directions. Led by a Director and two Associate Directors, the RIH currently houses seven Research Centers. The RIH is governed by a Management Board and managed by an Executive Committee comprising RIH’s Associate Directors and Centre Directors.

Centers

• Research Centre for Humanities Computing
• Edwin Cheng Foundation Asian Centre for Phenomenology
• Research Centre for Human Values
• Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities
• Center for the Study of Islamic Culture

All research centers under RIH are financially independent entities, surviving until today by means of private funds and external research grants.

Mission and Objectives

Mission

• To serve as an independent and financially viable research arm of the University to enhance the performance of humanities research at CUHK; and
• To act as the University’s central point of research and intellectual inquiry in the development of arts and humanities.

Objectives

• To enhance interdisciplinality both within the humanities and across arts and sciences (such as medical humanities);
• Foster new areas of study in cutting edge research for the prospect of important intellectual breakthrough with individual colleagues or collective prospects;
• Nurture young talents for sustainable academic excellence in arts and letters at CUHK by hosting external fellows, internal fellows and dissertation fellows (both international and on campus);
• Facilitate internationalization of the University by forming academic links with strategic partners and engaging in key regional and international organizations (e.g. ANHN, CHCI);
• Raise funds, donations and endowments for the benefits of research in humanities at CUHK.