History Department, HKU

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History Department, HKU

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The Department of History (HKU) is one of the most dynamic and innovative centres of historical teaching and research in Asia.

We are a vibrant and diverse Department offering a rich, balanced and varied curriculum. In our courses undergraduates explore key events and themes in history. Students and teachers interact in a supportive and intellectually stimulating learning environment. Our staff teach innovative courses informed by their own cutting-edge research. The History Major provides a thorough training in debate, creative and critical thinking, and advanced writing and presentation skills. Our students thrive in a programme that encourages them to innovate, collaborate, and apply their own ideas in communities local and global.

30/10/2026

Today, our faculty members share their own experiences with our students in the second session of the Career Workshop series this semester, "Postgraduate Studies Q&A".

28/10/2026

History in the Making - Ports of Profit: European Trading Hubs in Asia, c. 1500-1800

Register via the QR code!

Georgio Riello
Professor
European University Institute

November 4, 2026 16:30
Room 4.36, Run Run Shaw Tower

Well before the rise of 20th-century Special Economic Zones and world financial centres, the ports of maritime Asia were areas of global trade and nodes of capitalism. Today ‘factories’ are places of industrial production, but they owe their name to these pre-modern Asian trading ports, European-controlled commercial hubs headed by company servants called ‘factors’.

Around 200 of them were founded by European powers in Asia for trade. These ports were places where commodities for intercontinental trade were assembled, stored, and shipped.

This paper investigates their genesis, evolution, activities, and connections, and asks what kinds of economic activities were carried out in these Asian trading centres and what the interactive roles of European and local merchants were.

Giorgio Riello is Professor of Early Modern Global History at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick, UK (currently on secondment). He has published widely on the material exchange between Europe and Asia in the early modern period.

Among his books Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013), Luxury: A Rich History (2016), and the forthcoming In Times of Wealth (2027). Giorgio coordinates a European Research Council Advanced grant Project entitled ‘CAPASIA: The Asian Origins of Global Capitalism, 1500-1800’ considering the system of trade in the Indian Ocean (2022-27).

Faculty of Arts, HKU European University Institute

24/10/2026

From student to lecturer: join Dr. Carol Tsang as she reflects on over 20 years of "Doing History @ HKU" at this year’s programme talk!

Faculty of Arts, HKU

23/10/2026

Find out more: https://infoday.hku.hk/arts

Faculty of Arts, HKU

22/10/2026

Dr. Måns Ahlstedt Åberg presented a public talk entitled "Judging a Book by its Cover: Shen Fuzong, Thomas Hyde and the Chinese Collection of the Bodleian Library (1687)" at the Macau Ricci Institute on 1 June 2026. The forum was held at the University of Saint Joseph (Green Campus), Macau, and chaired by Dr. Felipe Bacalso of the Macau Ricci Institute.

21/10/2026

Prof. Michelle McKinley, Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law at the University of Oregon Law School, shares her research with us in today’s History in the Making seminar titled “ Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Affective economies and Litigation in the Early Modern Iberian Empire”. The seminar is cosponsored by the HKU Faculty of Law and Committee on Gender Equity and Diversity, HKU.

HKU Faculty of Law Committee on Gender Equity and Diversity, HKU

20/10/2026

Dr. Jason Petrulis was interviewed by music scholar Kristina R. Gaddy for her Open Stacks newsletter about his research on the jawbone/quijada as a global Black musical instrument. The interview, "Walk Jawbone," explores the themes of his award-winning article, "From Jonkonnu and Son de los diablos to Congo Square and Son Jarocho: Global Histories of the Jawbone/Quijada as a Black Musical Instrument" (American Music Vol. 41, No. 3, Fall 2023, pp. 287–326). Read the complete interview here: https://openstacks.substack.com/p/walk-jawbone.

16/10/2026

Prof. Ghassan Moazzin delivered a lecture at East China Normal University in Shanghai, entitled "生存、适应与韧性——战时大后方的中国民营电器制造业（1937—1945）", on October 14, 2026.

Find out more: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/DqoNogNBvtDXUwWvSpICWw

Faculty of Arts, HKU

15/10/2026

Supported by the History Endowment Fund, a small group of final-year history students led by Dr. Tim Yung took their learning into the field with a visit to Tai O and Ngong Ping, exploring local cultural heritage and the history of tourism on Lantau Island!

09/10/2026

"What’s the USSR got to do with it? Raw materials, technological change, and late industrialisation in resource-rich countries" by Dr. Franco Galdini, who is visiting us from the University of Birmingham, happening right now at HKU.

Find out more: https://www.history.hku.hk/events/history-talk-what%E2%80%99s-the-ussr-got-to-do-with-it-raw-materials-technological-change-and-late-industrialisation-in-resource-rich-countries

Address

Hong Kong

Telephone

+85239172874

Website

https://history.hku.hk/

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