About

ABOUT LEWI  

David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies (LEWI) is a consortium of 28 universities from North America, Europe and Asia. The Institute, with Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) as the host institution and base, was established in 1993 with the aim to foster inter-disciplinary social science and humanities research and cultivate collaborative scholarship between the East and the West.

 

The Institute is named after Dr. David C. Lam, former Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, Canada, who helped raise the funds for the construction of the David C. Lam Building, where the Institute was housed. His father, Dr. Lam Chi Fung, being the founding President of Hong Kong Baptist College (now University), was instrumental in laying down the foundations on which subsequent development of HKBU was based.

 

Kevin Lo, Acting Director

  Self Photos / Files - Dr. Kevin Lo - GEOG2 (1)

 

MISSION AND OBJECTIVES

 

David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies has two missions:

 

  1. to promote mutual understanding between East and West through research, academic exchange, and other scholarly activities; and
  2. to promote inter-disciplinary research in social sciences and humanities from both the perspectives of the East and West.

 

Over the years, the Institute has made strenuous efforts in performing and reconciling its dual roles as an international consortium of universities and a university-wide research unit. The institute currently focuses on three interrelated research themes (see below), positioning the Institute as an international hub in social science and humanities research. In spring 2011 the University extended a major grant under the Strategic Development Fund scheme to substantially strengthen the Institute’s research infrastructure and enable the Institute to recruit a number of full-time research staff.

 

RESEARCH THEMES

The Institute organizes its research around three working groups, namely, environment, health and sustainability working group, public policy making in multi-level governance settings working group, as well as urbanization, labour and mobility working group. Each working group comprises a senior faculty member as convenor and group members appointed by the director.

 

 

Environment, Health and Sustainability Working Group

  • Global and local environmental governance
  • Just transition
  • Eco-urbanism
  • Environmental health
  • Climate change and sustainability

 

Public Policy Making in Multi-level Governance Settings Working Group 

  • Public health policy making in times of pandemics
  • Comparative regionalism in Europe and Asia
  • The legal foundations of multi-level governance regimes

 

 

Urbanization, Labour and Mobility Working Group 

  • Capital-Labor-Commodity mobility nexus
  • Rural-urban mobility dynamics
  • Global production and value chains
  • Migrant integration and social service landscape in urban centres in Asia