SS is the biggest department in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and one of the biggest in CityU. We are a multi-disciplinary department with a strong commitment to staff development. Generous staff development grants are offered to faculty members every year for overseas conference- and publication-related expenses. Research Salon and Research Student Seminars are conducted regularly to allow faculty members and research students to learn from one another about the latest research findings and the discoveries of ongoing studies. The emphasis on staff development thus represents a key component of our overarching research strategy to foster a vibrant and impactful research environment for faculty members and research students.
SS comprises around 50 academic faculty staff members and 10 teaching staff. The vibrancy of our research culture has been strengthened through consistent strategic appointments of both new junior and established senior staff, as well as a rigorous recruitment process for research students. All recruitment and appointments are based on rigorous, equal and open processes laid down by the University.
The Department pays great attention to research development, and all our teaching staff are active researchers. The strength of the Department lies in the diversity of its experienced academic staff, with diverse research interests and professional expertise in the areas of applied sociology, counselling, criminology, psychology and social work, education and practice. Our staff’s research interests include community work, criminology, family therapy, human development and ageing, group work, regional development, social casework, social and community psychology, social welfare, urban sociology and youth studies. The combination of theory and practice is also clearly demonstrated in the Department’s research outputs in international and local journals and books, as well as by its consultancy assignments for various government departments and non-governmental organisations.
In addition to the staff development grants mentioned above, the research activities of faculty members are further facilitated by the sabbatical leave system and a robust, research ethics vetting mechanism.
Research students are given opportunities to incorporate their research experiences/findings into real teaching practice. They are also offered funding to attend overseas conferences and are strongly encouraged to publish papers jointly with their supervisors. Furthermore, in order to celebrate and consolidate the multi-disciplinary features of our PhD education, the SS Research Student Alumni Association was set up in 2019 to reinforce our ties with alumni across academic fields, geographical regions and cohorts.
At present, two department-housed research facilities have been established: a Multi-function Room-cum-Psychology Laboratory and Practice Centre.