⭐️⭐️⭐️Today’s seminar offered a thoughtful and deeply engaging discussion on the meaning of doing research and what it means for researchers to live according to their stated values within increasingly pressured academic systems. Our speakers explored different positions on promoting values in research across social sciences, examined the fragmentation and privilege within academia, and reflected on the tensions between values-driven scholarship and institutional expectations from multiple perspectives across different contexts, including Hong Kong, the UK, and mainland China. The conversation highlighted the challenges faced by researchers at different career stages, especially early career scholars, while also encouraging critical reflection on the structures shaping contemporary academia.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the speakers - Rachel Brooks, Peter Woelert, Dr Paul CampbellYuyao Xiao, and Wenqiang WANG - for sharing their insights, experiences, and honesty so generously. Their contributions created a space for meaningful dialogue, critical reflection, and intellectual solidarity 🫶 🫶 🫶
In many ways, this seminar series continues to feel like an antidote to the pressures and frustrations of academic life. It gives us a rare and valuable opportunity to speak openly about injustice, precarity, and the “darkness” within higher education in a thoughtful and constructive way. Yet each session also leaves us with something hopeful: a sense of connection, excitement, and quiet happiness that comes from thinking together and being heard❤️❤️❤️.
