Department of English

The Department of English is committed to producing research that is world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour. Distinctive peaks of research excellence with a capacity to rise above a broad disciplinary base have arisen organically in the following areas, achieving indicators of esteem. They are supported by the Department’s research strategy, resource, and international collaborative networks.

Research areas

• Professional communication: This long-standing area of Department strength examines how English is used in academic, corporate, and professional contexts: for example, the academic language of scientific research, the corporate language of social media marketing, and the professional language of the law. Conferences on professional communication, co-organized with LSPPC/ISGS and PolyU, have established the Department’s international reputation in this area of research. An Asia-Pacific LSPPC international conference hosted at CityU is planned for 2027.
• Healthcare communication: This research focuses on the use of language in real-world medical situations. It investigates how healthcare professionals use language to communicate with each other and their patients, and how important health messages are communicated to the public. The Department’s impact case study for RAE 2026 is devoted to improving healthcare communication in clinical handovers. This has been an area of significant grant capture, leading to training events and an international conference on healthcare communication in 2023.
• Educational linguistics: This area of research focuses on pedagogical practice in English language and literacy education. In international contexts, it examines how English language learners engage with processes of language acquisition, and interact with their peers at school and at university. Faculty are members of editorial boards of top-tier journals, English for Specific Purposes and Language Learning and Technology, and have been successful in leading large grants. As a result, educational linguistics is a vibrant area of postgraduate recruitment.
• Multimodality and digital technologies: This cross-cutting research examines digital communication processes from multimodal perspectives as well as those in productive tension with linguistic and semiotic methodologies. It includes a focus on innovative forms of interactivity like digital multimodal composing and digital adaptations in literary and cultural contexts. The Department directs seminars in this cutting-edge field and works with technology companies in the development of digital learning tools. Specialists in the Department contribute to CityU research clusters investigating Digital Society and Brain.
• Urban narratives: This research group brings together faculty with expertise in literature of the city and urban narratives across cultural and historical contexts from the nineteenth century to the present day. Emphasizing interdisciplinary and transnational approaches to understanding of the urban, the Department hosts a cross-institutional reading group on urban studies, advancing a range of paradigms and critical praxes to explore urban imaginaries that are fundamental to experience in the modern world. Faculty have published books and articles on forms of urban narratives and lead grant projects in this area. In December 2024, CityU will co-host an international conference on “Urban Mediations”.
• World literature: The Department has demonstrated its strengths in this area through publications in leading journals (PMLA, ARIEL, Modern Fiction Studies), edited books on cosmopolitanism, and in keynote lectures on world literature. Faculty host seminars at CityU on translation and comparative literature, as well as poetry readings and film screenings developing interdisciplinary international networks. The Department has been successful in winning grants and attracting postgraduate researchers in world literature.
• Inter-Asia cultural studies: The Department’s approach to the study of literary and cultural studies is informed by our location in Hong Kong, a multicultural port city with a diverse cultural history. Our literature faculty excels in examining the intricacies of cross-cultural exchange with particular areas of interest in the study of translation, Southeast Asian film, transpacific literatures and China-West cultural encounters. Ongoing collaborative research projects on the interaction of the cultures of the Asia-Pacific region connect scholars in Hong Kong and beyond.