Scholarship and People across Languages and Worlds
Three Subjects Recognised in the QS World University Rankings 2026
International rankings offer one measure, among many, of a field’s rigour and reach. In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, three of the disciplines in the Faculty were singled out for distinction.
Philosophy ranked 3rd in Hong Kong, 14th across the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan region, and 20th in Asia. Communication and Media Studies placed 11th, and English Language and Literature 14th, within the same regional grouping.
These results affirm the Faculty’s strengths in humanities, language, and communication, and its growing visibility within regional and international academic communities.
Academicians and Fellows across Lingnan Arts
International scholarly distinction extends beyond publications to recognition by prestigious global academies and learned societies. Across Lingnan Arts, scholars hold prominent roles in international communities.
Dean Professor John N. Erni is a Fellow and former President of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities and a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Professor Wang Binhua was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, while historian Professor Mark Hampton is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Professor Du Chunmei held a fellowship from the US National Endowment for the Humanities. Faculty members are also recognized by Advance HE and BALEAP, reflecting excellence in research, university education, and global leadership across the humanities.
Questions Worth Asking Well
The deepest philosophical questions do not become less urgent because they are difficult. What is knowledge? What makes an action right? How should we understand consciousness, responsibility, truth, and the good life?
Lingnan philosophers publish in some of the world’s most selective journals, including Noûs, Ethics, Mind, The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. This level of international recognition reflects research of exceptional rigour.
More importantly, the significance of philosophy at Lingnan is not measured by selectivity alone. It lies in a culture of serious questioning that brings ethical reflection to contemporary life.
Researching the Worlds We Inhabit
The academic year 2025–26 marked the 25th anniversary of Lingnan’s Department of Cultural Studies: a milestone celebrating a quarter-century of critical inquiry, intellectual exchange, and engagement with the world beyond the University. Distinguished lectures and gatherings of students, alumni, and partners honoured this history while opening a new chapter for the discipline.
Professors John N. Erni and Pun Ngai have been named in Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists list, recognising research of sustained international influence. Their work reflects the enduring importance of cultural studies as a field that investigates how power, work, media, identity, inequality, care, and everyday life are woven together.
At Lingnan, cultural studies asks not only how the world is represented, but how it is lived. It brings critical theory into contact with social realities and treats culture as a site where people contest inherited conditions and imagine more equitable ways of being together.
Editorial Leadership across Lingnan Arts
Scholarship does not advance through research alone. It also depends on the intellectual judgement, generosity, and international networks of those who steward the journals and book series through which new ideas are tested, refined, and shared.
Across Lingnan Arts, faculty members serve as editors, associate editors, series editors, guest editors, editorial-board members, and advisers for leading journals and academic presses. Their roles span Chinese literature, cultural studies, history, language, communication, education, philosophy, and interdisciplinary humanities—helping set scholarly standards and bringing emerging questions into dialogue across regions and disciplines.
For instance, Professor Pun Ngai serves as Associate Editor of Critical Sociology; Professor Andrea Sauchelli serves as Associate Editor of Inquiry and Philosophical Exchange, as well as Editor of Philosophy of AI; Professor Jason Harding serves as Associate Editor of The Explicator; Professor Wang Binhua serves as Co-Editor of Interpreting and Society; Professor Mark Hampton serves as Co-Editor of Media History; Professor Rafael De Clercq serves as Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy; Professor Corey Huang serves as Editor of Visual Communication; Professor James Fanciullo serves as Associate Editor of The Journal of Ethics; Dr Ángel Garralda serves as Co-Editor of the Journal of World Languages; and Dr Zhang Ruofei serves as Assistant Editor of both Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligenceand Computers & Education X Reality.