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Department of
English Language And Literature

The Department of English Language and Literature offers a wide range of expertise across the areas of literature, cultural studies, linguistics and translation, encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to academic research, knowledge development and transfer. We aim to provide advanced training that enables MPhil and PhD students to build up their theoretical and applied knowledge of one or more of the areas related to English Studies and acquire the skills and abilities necessary to conduct critical and original research in their field of specialisation. We place a special emphasis on interdisciplinary studies and we welcome theses that explore the intersections of literary and cultural studies, linguistics and translation.

Successful applicants will be assigned suitably qualified supervisors to guide their research. Profiles of research supervisors are provided on the department webpage. Interested applicants may contact a potential supervisor to discuss an area of research they are interested in.

 
Department of English Language and Literature
List of supervisors for PhD and MPhil Programmes 2025 -2026
 
Staff Rank Principal Supervisor of the PhD Programmes Co-Supervisor of the PhD Programmes Principal Supervisor of the MPhil Programmes Co- Supervisor of the MPhil Programmes
Field of Research

 

Dr. Rebekah BALE

 

Assistant Professor

 

V

 

V

 

V

 

V
  • Shakespearean Studies
  • Contemporary fiction 
  • Adaptation studies
  • Post-colonial fiction

 

Dr. Kacey LIU

 

Associate Professor

 

V

 

V

 

V

 

V
  • Corpus-based Translation
  • Gender and Translation 
  • Eco-translation
  • Gender and Language

 

Dr. Michelle CHAN

 

Assistant Professor

 

V

 

V

 

V

 

V
  • Children’s Literature
  • Victorian Literature
  • Studies of Fantasy
  • Graphic Narratives 
  • Transmedia Studies 

 

Dr. Thomas CHAN

 

Assistant Professor

 

V

 

V

 

V

 

V
  • Genre analysis 
  • Corpus-based discourse analysis 
  • Multimodal discourse analysis 
  • Citation analysis 
  • Academic/research writing

 

Dr. Jenny WAN

 

Assistant Professor

    

 

V

 

V
  • Discourse analysis of Human and Generative AI
  • Professional Discourse Analysis
  • Language of Mass and Social Media
  • Intercultural Communication
  • Workplace Communication

 

Dr. Ivy WONG

 

Assistant Professor

    

 

V

 

V
  • Cognitive linguistics
  • Second language acquisition
  • Usage-based approaches to language learning
  • Computer-assisted grammar instruction

 

Dr. CHENG Ho Fai, Viggo

 

Assistant Professor

      

 

V
  • Intercultural communication
  • Language and identity
  • Framing in discourse
  • (Board) Game interaction
  • Interactional Sociolinguistics

 

Dr. Ffion DAVIES

 

Assistant Professor

      

 

V
  • Gender Studies
  • Queer Studies
  • Crime Fiction
  • Gothic Literature
  • Film
  • Contemporary Literature

 

Application to MPhil/PhD Programmes 2026-2027

The application for 2026-2027 Research Postgraduate Programmes is now open. Eligible individuals are welcome to apply to the MPhil/PhD Programmes in the disciplines of English. 

Application Deadlines: 30 June 2026
 
The admission requirement and general course requirements of MPhil/PhD Programmes are available on Graduate School website at https://gs.hksyu.edu/en. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Graduate School at gs@hksyu.edu or 2806 7307. 
 
For more information, please visit the website of the Graduate School.