Dr. LEE Ka Kiu Nelson
BSSc., MPhil and PhD (CUHK)
Nelson Lee is an expert in political geography and urban politics. His academic works are published in flagship disciplinary journals including Political Geography and International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. He serves as an invited referee for the leading academic journals in the disciplines. He is frequently interviewed by media such as Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal, Radio Free Asia and Ming Pao Daily News. He has been invited to give lectures to senior Chinese government officials from across the country.
Lee’s teaching covers the areas of politics of space, political geography, urban studies, cultural politics, Hong Kong politics, law and society etc. In 2014, Lee was awarded the Exemplary Teaching Award of the Faculty of Social Science for his outstanding performance in teaching. He is a devoted teacher who insists in nourishing students to be a well-rounded person.
Major Teaching Areas
- Politics of Space
- Politics of Culture
- Political Geography
- Urban Studies
- Law and Society
- Hong Kong Government and Politics
Courses Taught
- GPAD 1000 Learning GPA
- GLAW 1010 Law and Society
- GPAD 1050 Hong Kong Government
- GPAD 1077 Critical Debates in Hong Kong
- GPAD 1100 Politics, Law and Society
- GPAD 2015 Selected Topics in Hong Kong Politics
- GPAD 2020 Politics of Culture
- GPAD 3220 Politics of Space
- GPAD 4130 Theories in Comparative Politics (Graduate level)
- GPGC 5002 Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in Comparative Perspectives (Graduate level)
- MPUP 5321 NGOs and Government (Graduate level)
Professional Service
Have contributed to training programmes for government officials of China who implement the country’s ongoing social management reform: Have delivered more than 40 lectures on the topics of community management and governance of civil society to government officials (of the grades of Section Chief, Director, and Director-General) from Guangdong, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangxi, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, etc.
Have served as invited referee for international journals such as Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Political Geography, etc.
Have been interviewed by international and local media on the politics of Hong Kong’s water supply and China-Hong Kong relations, including Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal, Radio Free Asia, Freedom Observatory, Ming Pao Daily News, Metro Radio, Now TV, Next Magazine, iSun Affairs, etc.
Have offered talks and speeches in activities and functions organised by academic bodies and youth and social organisations, for example:
- Jul 2012 “One Country, Two Systems – A Contested Concept,” lecture delivered at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
- Oct 2009 “Public Space: Theory and Practice,” public lecture held by Democratic Party (Hong Kong) and Hong Kong Reader.
- Jun 2008 “Politics, Public Space, and Hannah Arendt’s Political Theory,” public lecture organised by Roundtable Community and Hong Kong Reader.
- Dec 2006 “Politics and Space: Why Should We Study Space?” public lecture at the Department of Public Policy and Management, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
- May 2005 “Politics of Space? Space of Politics? ‘The Political’ in the Contemporary Thought on Space,” public lecture at the Department of Social Science, the University of Macau.
Research Grants
Research Grants
- Since 2013 “Public Space, Social Capital and Urban Governance: An Empirical Study,” General Research Fund, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong. Co-investigator.
- 2010 – 2012 “The Pattern of Urban Life in Hong Kong: A District Level Community Study of Sham Shui Po,” commissioned by the Central Policy Unit, HKSAR Government. Co-Investigator.
- 2009 – 2010 “2010 Shanghai’s World’s Exposition: Mega-event, Urban Boosterism and Urban Spatial Politics in Contemporary China,” supported by the Direct Grant, CUHK – project code 2020957, and Chiap Hua Cheng’s Foundation Fund, Ref. no. 108180. Principal Investigator.
- 2008 – 2011 “Politics of Heritage Preservation: The Case of Macao’s Application to UNESCO World Heritage Listing,” supported by the Direct Grant, CUHK – project code 2020921. Principal Investigator.
Selected Publications
1.
- 2014 “Changing Nature of Border, Scale, and the Production of Hong Kong’s Water Supply System since 1959,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol 38.3, 903-21.
- 2011 (with Kai Hon Ng, Wilson W. Wong and others) “The Pattern of Urban Life in Hong Kong: A District Level Community Study of Sham Shui Po,” a consultant report submitted to Central Policy Unit, the HKSAR Government.
- 2010 “Why Has Hong Kong Been Dependent on Water from Dongjiang River? – Rethinking the ‘Story’ of Supplying Water for Hong Kong”, in Po-keung Hui (ed.), Rewriting the History of Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press), pp. 63-73 (in Chinese).
- 2009 “How is a Political Public Space Made? – The Birth of Tiananmen Square and the May Fourth Movement,” Political Geography, Vol. 28, pp. 32-43 (Lead article).
- 2009 “Hong Kong’s Colonial Urbanism Revisited: ‘Sai Gwa Bo’ Street-side Games, and the Children’s Creation of Free Public Space in the High Density City,” in Kit-Wai Ma (ed.) Exploring Chinese Urban Studies (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong), pp. 81-108 (in Chinese).
- 2005 “The Capitalist World System and Its Production of Space,” in Center for Studies of World Modernization Process (ed.) Studies of World Modernization, 3 (Beijing: Commercial Press), pp. 93-136 (in Chinese).