Environmental Studies Programme

Director: Professor Paul G. HARRIS, BA (New Hampshire, USA), MA (New Hampshire, USA), PhD (Brandeis University, USA)

       The Environmental Studies Programme was established in January 2008 to act as a focal point for research on environmental issues, drawing on Lingnan University's unique attributes as a centre for excellence in the social sciences and liberal arts.

       The importance of environmental issues for Hong Kong and China, as well as the region and the world, cannot be overstated. Indeed, environmental issues will grow in importance as time passes. As a scholarly institution with crosscutting and interdisciplinary expertise in the study of society, Lingnan University is especially well suited to be a leader in exploring aspects of environmental changes currently being overlooked in Hong Kong. The Environmental Studies Programme is designed to leverage expertise and interest in niches across the university, especially given that the community and the government want much more attention given to environment and pollution. The Environmental Studies Programme's activities not only bolster research and teaching at Lingnan, but also serve the community.

       The Environmental Studies Programme currently encourages three main areas of research:

(1) Global Environmental Politics and Foreign Policy. This area stresses research related to international and global environmental politics, international environmental organizations and regimes, the climate change negotiations, international environmental justice, and environmental foreign policies of China and other nation-states.

(2) Human Dimensions of Environmental Change. This area includes research on Hong Kong and Chinese environmental policy, environmental economics, business and the environment, corporate environmental citizenship, environmental history, environment and health, population growth, environment and culture, and other social science and humanities research related to environmental change.

(3) Environmental Values. This area encompasses research addressing environmental ethics, philosophy and psychology, notably work focusing on Hong Kong and Mainland China, as well as issues such as human-animal relationships, religion and the environment, and other research related to individual and collective perceptions and beliefs regarding the environment.

       In addition to acting as a focus for, and driver of, environmental research at Lingnan, the Environmental Studies Programme is a resource for students and teachers, including (but by no means restricted to) those involved in the many environment-related courses at the university, particularly those that are part of the minor degree in Environmental Studies.