Professor Olga Zayts-Spence, Associate Professor in the School of English of HKU Faculty of Arts and Director of HKU Research and Impact Initiative on Communication in Healthcare (HKU RIICH), shared her research team’s latest findings from her ongoing health communication research in Greater China at the 3rd Peking University International Conference on Medical Humanities. This conference is a part of the 21st Beijing Forum, an annual global academic event that aims to foster dialogue between academic and industry experts on conducting impactful and translational research.
Professor Zayts-Spence’s talk — entitled “Could Applied Linguistic Research be Interventionist?” — given as part of “The Humanities in Promoting Health for All” sub-forum, discussed how health communication research projects can be used as a form of intervention for real-world impact on a population or topic of investigation. Professor Zayts-Spence drew on novel empirical data collected in her most recent research projects on graduates’ transitions to the workforce during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and provided cutting-edge insights on translating academic research findings into accessible and practical resources for stakeholders.
“It is an absolute honour to be part of the Beijing Forum 2024,” said Professor Zayts-Spence. “My research team will continue to investigate a variety of approaches and resources to best support graduates as they embark on varying career paths. We have already uploaded a range of different resources, such as infographics, planning sheets and bite-size videos onto Graduate Mindmap. We hope that these resources will be useful in supporting our students, university staff and workplaces. Our team is also currently expanding our research project to the Guangdong-Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). We are extremely excited to explore the different career opportunities available to our graduates.”
Professor Olga Zayts-Spence has been awarded over HK$5.4m from the Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for her projects on graduates and their transitions to the post-COVID workforce. Her research team’s ongoing work involves the development of an empirically grounded digital resource hub known as “Graduate Mindmap”. The platform contains a range of interactive and multimedia content to help graduates develop crucial skills to succeed in post-pandemic workplaces and to support their mental health and well-being. Professor Zayts-Spence and her research team are also currently developing evidence-based training workshops for students, university staff and employers on topics such as mental health, resilience, and workplace-ready skills. These workshops and trainings will be collaboratively delivered in 2025 with university units and expert members of the research team.
To learn more about The Graduate Mindmap: www.graduatemindmap.com
For further information about Professor Olga Zayts-Spence’s latest research projects and HKU RIICH: https://www.hkuriich.org/.
About Beijing Forum
Since its inception in 2004, the Beijing Forum has been attended by over 7000 scholars and experts from more than 80 regions and held more than 200 panels. This year’s Peking University International Conference on Medical Humanities attracted 200 representatives from 50 higher institutions nationwide, and more than 50 world-renowned Medical Humanities scholars and young researchers from Mainland China, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
To learn more details on the Beijing Forum 2024: https://www.bjf.pku.edu.cn/forum/index.php
For media enquiries, please contact Professor Olga-Zayts Spence, School of English, HKU (Email: zayts@hku.hk) or Mr. Angus Chan, School of English, HKU (Email: anguscsm@hku.hk).
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