Prof. Gray Kochhar-Lindgren and I ran an intensive 2-week undergraduate summer research fellowship in 2024 focused on undertaking transdisciplinary research around the theme of water and sustainability through Bruno Latour’s concept of Critical Zones.

The research fellowship, participated by 20 students, covered transdisciplinary research theories, methodologies, rationales, and impact, practices, interventions, & cultural assumptions around water and Hong Kong, and creative and critical ways of reading, viewing, sharing, and writing. We also took students on a field trip to the Swire Institute of Marine Science.

By the end of the fellowship, students produced original and diverse research papers, using concepts such as ecocriticism, ecoanxiety, rhythmanalysis, and telecoupling, and exploring dirigibles, houseboats, water lines, coastal reclaimation, and swimming pools.

Afterwards, students also presented their research in academic conferences and initiated a student-led transdisciplinary research conference titled Transdisciplinary Academic Conference for Emerging Scholars (TRACES) on 28 June 2025.