China’s low-carbon city initiative: Authoritarian environmentalism and climate policy experimentation

The Department of Geography at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) invites applications for a full-time, fully-funded, three year PhD scholarship to conduct research connected to a RGC-funded research project entitled “China’s low-carbon city initiative: Authoritarian environmentalism and climate policy experimentation”. Additional resources are available to cover fieldwork and conference attendance. Successful candidates will begin the PhD study in June 2018.

The RGC-funded project aims to critically and qualitatively examine how Chinese local governments develop local climate responses in the context of decentralised authoritarianism. Empirically, this project focuses on the “low-carbon pilot cities” (Khanna et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2015). This research will add to our understanding of how new local climate policies in China develops, and how authoritarianism facilitates or hinders local climate governance. The PhD candidate will work closely with Dr. Kevin Lo, the PI of the project. The PhD candidate will be expected to conduct field research, including interviews and document analysis, in China. Comparative studies between China and another country is also possible.

HKBU is a leading public university located in Hong Kong. The QS World University Ranking 2018 placed HKBU in the top 300 universities in the world and number 64 in Asia. The Department of Geography (http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/) is the top-ranked Geography department in Hong Kong by “world-leading research” in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014.

Applicants must be university graduates with at least an upper second class honours degree or a Masters degree, or they will be in the final year of a program that is expected to deliver that qualification. Ability to speak Mandarin and read Simplified Chinese would be an advantage. Applicants from a university outside Hong Kong of which the language of teaching is not English is required to obtain a minimum score in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) at 550 (PBT)/79 (IBT) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) at 6.5.

For more information and to submit an initial application, please email Dr. Kevin Lo ([Email Address Removed]). Please include a CV, an example of written work, and a single-page cover letter describing your suggested research topic and perspectives. The deadline for submitting the initial application to Dr. Lo is March 1, 2018.