Faculty of Arts

The Faculty of Arts aims to cultivate innovative approaches to research impact among its researchers in both traditional and creative research. Through a research-based synthesis of theoretical and applied approaches, and by combining learning with service, we inspire to channel research innovation into artistic creation and critical thought. Our emphasis upon creativity and critical thinking offers opportunities to interrogate prejudice and to question established norms and values, just as it nurtures the aspiration to bring newness into the world.

Dr Albert Chau

Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) and Acting Dean of Arts

Statement by the Dean

The Faculty of Arts forms a unique component of HKBU research, encompassing a wide scope of impact-driven scholarly approaches and creative practices. With its focus on the contributions of art and culture to society, the Faculty offers an especially rich environment for comparative, cross-cultural teaching and research of global relevance—including meeting sustainability development goals (SDGs)—as as it engages with a liberal arts education that is truly liberating and nurturing individuals with the knowledge, freedom of vision, and creative skills they need to function as effective members of their communities. Through a research-based synthesis of theoretical and applied approaches, and by combining learning with service, we inspire students and scholars alike to channel their research innovation into artistic creation and critical thought.

Established in 1961, the Faculty of Arts features six departments (Chinese Language and Literature; English Language and Literature; Humanities and Creative Writing; Religion and Philosophy; and Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies and a Language Centre serving the entire university), four research centres (for Applied Ethics; Chinese Cultural Heritage; Sino-Christian Studies; and Translation), and two institutes (the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology and the Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Humanitas Institute).

Faculty of Arts researchers collaborate with scholars worldwide and from a wide spectrum of disciplines to pursue impactful endeavours in an environment that clearly reflects the University’s liberal arts mission of inquiry, internationalisation, and innovation. Facilities include an Interpreting Laboratory offering support for training in consecutive and simultaneous modes of translation, a Phonology Laboratory, and a Language Learning Oasis providing independent language learning resources.

Building upon its emphasis on creative writing, the Faculty is also playing a decisive role in the development of the Creative Media & Practice (CMP) research cluster. One of three new University-wide interdisciplinary clusters, CMP will house state-of-the-art facilities where arts researchers can collaborate with colleagues who specialise in film, music, visual arts and other areas to produce innovative media projects.

Research Impact

The Faculty of Arts’ Niche Research Area melds three central domains, Well-being, Value, and the Public Good. Colleagues in the Faculty conduct research relating to these topics separately, but also on how they are interrelated. The niche research area is centrally concerned with how (cross-)cultural and creative practices bring value to the lives, not just of individuals, but entire communities, thereby playing a constitutive role in the building of good societies and in producing the public good. A thriving government-funded, liberal-arts university that is expected to produce research with relevance to society, HKBU offers a fertile environment for imaginative research on the benefits that culture and creative practices bring to the world. Among other things, colleagues in the Faculty of Arts are interested in the role of creative writing in the context of trauma and therapy, in the value of prayer, the advent of AI-assisted learning, and in the effects of creative practices on solidarity and the social bond in the context of diverse societies and amongst marginalized communities.

The Faculty of Arts is committed to further developing its culture of research excellence throughout the wide variety of scholarly activities and creative practices pursued by our researchers. Colleagues in the Faculty conduct research relating to these topics separately, but also on how they are interrelated. Each niche research area is centrally concerned with how (cross-)cultural and creative practices bring value to the lives, not just of individuals, but to entire communities, thereby playing a constitutive role in the building of good societies and in producing the public good.