Humanities

Overview

Students may specialize in linguistics, history, anthropology, philosophy and religion, or literature, film, and media studies, though they are expected to go beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries and cultivate knowledge and expertise in interdisciplinary dialogue and interaction. 

A candidate for an MPhil degree is expected to demonstrate knowledge in the discipline and to synthesize and create new knowledge, making a contribution to the field.

Research Foci

In Humanities , our foci are Chinese social and cultural history, transnational Chinese history, European intellectual history, history of science, Chinese dialects, experimental linguistics, sociolinguistics, Chinese philosophy (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism), comparative philosophy of East and West, philosophy of science, Chinese and comparative literature, animation and film studies, and cultural anthropology of South China and medicine/psychology.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the The Master of Philosophy (MPhil) Program in Humanities from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , graduates will be able to:

• Specialize in one of the humanistic disciplines in the Division, either Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy or Religion, apart from cultivating knowledge and expertise in interdisciplinary dialogue and interaction;
• Adopt a comparative and intercultural perspective to investigate into his/her specialized area, whether focusing on China or other parts of the world;
• Identify important issues and topics, collect relevant primary sources and examine their values;
• Familiarize with representative scholarly works in his/her field and the major narratives and interpretations ever produced;
• Apply textual and/or contextual analysis to the study of his/her specialized subject and develop useful methodologies, techniques, and/or tools for his/her research; and
• Through presentations, discussions and writing papers and the thesis, deliver his/her research findings in an effective and professional manner.