Centre for Applied Ethics

📕 New Publication Announcement | "Social Media and Hong Kong Christian Communities: Diversity and Equality"
by CAE Research Fellows, Prof. Ann Gillian Chu 朱安之 and Prof. Rachel Robertson

✍️Abstract
Social media in Hong Kong Christian communities has been viewed in terms of social equalization, allowing laity to shape theology and community practices. But how is social media an equalizer for religious communities, and along which social dimensions? Drawing on Heidi A. Campbell’s “layers” and Pauline Hope Cheong’s “logics” of power, we offer a framework for examining how social media affects leadership roles, community practices, ideology and identity, and approaches to religious texts, in terms of whether these impacts are continuous with and complementary to existing power structures, displace traditional authority, or involve a dialectic between the two. Through case studies of Hong Kong Christian Key Opinion Leaders (KOL), we show displacements of official roles by lay leaders interacting with an underlying logic of continuity along traditional lines such as gender, social class, and sexual orientation. Online structures of community practice complement existing power structures, reinforcing traditional hierarchies of identity, ideology, and religious texts. We conclude by considering how theological approaches to dispossession may help Hong Kong Christian communities to enter a dialectic of challenges and opportunities for equality.
💻Read More:
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/17/5/608

Huge congratulations to our CAE Research Fellows, Prof. Rachel Robertson and Prof. Levi Mahonri Checketts, for their excellence in teaching! 🥳🏆

✨We had a fantastic time yesterday afternoon during the 2nd talk of our ICAEW x HKBU Ethics Series Webinars!

A big thank you to Prof. Baldwin Wong, Research Fellow from CAE, for sharing how Zhuangzi's philosophy can support the mental wellbeing of today’s modern office workers. 🌿🧘‍♂️

📌 For more details on the Ethics Series Webinars:https://cae.hkbu.edu.hk/academic-activities/ICAEW-and-HKBU-Ethics-Series-Webinars.html

Happy 34th Birthday, CAE! 🎂✨

Today is a special day! The Centre for Applied Ethics was founded on this day in 1992.

Thank you to all our friends and partners for supporting us in making the world a more thoughtful place. Here’s to many more years of great discussions! 🥂💡

📚We are delighted to share some wonderful news!🎉
Three of our colleagues and research fellows have recently been appointed to editorial leadership roles in respected international journals — a testament to their outstanding scholarship and growing influence in the field.

Prof. Benedict S. B. Chan, our Director, has joined the editorial team of Journal of Global Ethics as one of its new editors:
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rjge20

Prof. Levi Checketts, our Associate Director, has been appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology:
https://www.pdcnet.org/techne/Techn%C3%A9:-Research-in-Philosophy-and-Technology

Prof. Pak-Hang Wong, one of our research fellows, is now Editor-in-Chief of Ethics and Society (formerly NanoEthics):
https://www.springer.com/journal/11569

These appointments reflect their impressive academic contributions and the international recognition of their work. We warmly congratulate Prof. Chan, Prof. Checketts, and Prof. Wong on these exciting new roles, and we wish them every success as they continue to shape important conversations in ethics, philosophy, and technology.

📚𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐦：𝐀𝐈 𝐱 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬: 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬
🎙️𝐊𝐞𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 - 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐢
📢𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐖: https://shorturl.at/T3OKi

🗓️ 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 28 April, 2026 (Tuesday)
⏰ 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: Time: 13:30 - 17:45
📍 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞: WLB204 (Rm 204, Wing Lung Bank Building for Business Studies, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University)
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🌐𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐀𝐈 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
🎙️𝐊𝐞𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 - 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐢
*𝐂𝐂𝐋-𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭
📢𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐖: https://shorturl.at/boGlt

🗓️ 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 29 April, 2026 (Wednesday)
⏰ 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 18:00 - 20:00
📍 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞: WLB103 (Rm 103, Wing Lung Bank Building for Business Studies, Shaw Campus, Hong Baptist University)
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🔗Event Page: https://cae.hkbu.edu.hk/academic-activities/Academic-Symposium-and-Public-Talk-with-Professor-Luciano-Floridi1.html

Our Centre's Associate Director, Prof. Levi Checketts, was a featured speaker at the 2025 World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea.

During the assembly, Prof. Checketts presented during a key workshop titled "Vocation and Creation Care," where he addressed the environmental costs of AI adoption—specifically e-waste, carbon emissions, and water usage. He highlighted how these challenges disproportionately impact the Global South.

His contributions were recently highlighted in an article by AI and Faith, which reviews the plenary sessions and workshops from the WEA conference.

🔗: https://aiandfaith.org/events/world-evangelical-alliance-review/

📚New Publication from our Centre's Research Fellow, Prof. Ann Gillian Chu
"Caregivers Who Left: Hong Kong Older Adults, Their British Migrant Children, and Hong Kong Christian Communities—A Group Study from Psychological and Theological Perspectives"

🔗 : https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/15/4/218