Recapping the Academic Seminar “My Journey Home: Scholar, Educator, and Public Intellectual” conducted by Prof. HE Xiaoqing Rowena on 29 October 2021

In the Graduate Seminar on 29 October, Prof. Rowena HE shared with our postgraduate students her path to becoming an academic in her lecture titled “My Journey Home: Scholar, Educator, and Public Intellectual.” Illustrating by using her own research, she introduced the narrative approach of history inquiry. She explained that researchers should address the question “Who am I as a researcher?” because they begin their inquiries by bringing out their own experienced knowledge. She emphasised the importance of understanding the interaction between the personal and the contextual through linking the stories of individuals to the larger human and social phenomena, as the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world. She introduced oral history inquiry, a method which focuses on the reconstruction of a life and preserves an individual’s own words and perspectives authentically. She then elucidated life history inquiry, which emphasises the role of historical contexts in the investigation of life stories. She also introduced interactive and in-depth interviews, and shared tips on how to prepare for and conduct an interview. She finally stressed that in reconstructing history, researchers need to have a range of sources, including official and unofficial memories, and should rigorously verify their sources in the process of their research.

Workshops for the Final-Year RPg Students 2021-22

For enquiry, please call 3943 7448.

For teachers and students who have information to share with the Department, please email your articles in both Chinese and English to chanfiona@cuhk.edu.hk by 4:00pm every Monday.