CityU scholars in humanities shine in Fulbright awards

Academics from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have been honoured in the Fulbright Hong Kong Senior Scholar Awards this year, winning two out of the three honours bestowed on promising academics in arts, humanities and social sciences in Hong Kong.

These annual awards are jointly sponsored by the US Consulate General in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Every year up to three awards allow Hong Kong scholars to spend four to 10 months as Fulbright visiting scholars at major US universities and research institutes.

The two CityU scholars are Dr Fan Ruiping and Dr William Taylor from the Department of Public and Social Administration. Dr Fan initially trained as a physician in Inner Mongolia and later studied medical ethics and policy. He obtained his PhD from Rice University in the US, and since joining CityU in 2000 he has brought his philosophical perspectives to the teaching of public administration and social policy. His research areas cover bioethics and health care policy, comparative philosophy and confucianism. As a Fulbright Scholar, he will research his project “Recovering the Virtues: Aristotelian and Confucian Approaches” at Notre Dame University in the US for six months from January 2008.

Dr Taylor graduated from Warwick University in the UK and joined CityU in 1993. His research interests focus on labour management and industrial relations in mainland China and East Asia. Winning the fellowship will allow him to spend 10 months from August 2007 at Cornell University in the US working on his project “Understanding American Views on the Politics of Labour in China”.

Three scholars from CityU have received the same honour as Dr Taylor and Dr Fan since the awards were first introduced in 2001: Dr Linda Li Che-lan and Dr Sing Ming, both Associate Professors from the Department of Public and Social Administration, and Dr Wu Xueping, Associate Professor from the Department of Economics and Finance.

CityU’s excellence in humanities has won worldwide recognition. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, CityU jumped 40 places to 53rd this year in the world’s top social science universities, exemplifying the outstanding contributions made by CityU academics.

“The Fulbright Awards are a great honour for the recipients and reflect very well on the international standing of CityU’s academic staff,” said Professor Martin Painter, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. “I wish my Faculty’s colleagues a successful and rewarding time as Fulbright Scholars.”

In addition, Chen Jiashu, a Year 3 student from CityU’s Department of Electronic Engineering, is among 27 awardees worldwide to be given a prestigious Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship from the US Department of State. He is the first Hong Kong student to receive this honour, which is given to outstanding foreign students with a unique aptitude for the sciences. The award will sponsor Chen Jiashu to pursue his PhD in radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design at the University of California, Berkeley, upon graduation.

About the Fulbright Programme:

The world-renowned Fulbright Programme was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by then Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. Approximately 267,500 "Fulbrighters," 100,900 from the US and 166,600 from other countries, have participated since the programme started over fifty years ago. The Fulbright Programme awards approximately 6,000 new grants annually and currently operates in over 150 countries.