Medicinal Animals and Datasets: A Digital Humanities Project

Come and enjoy a taste of Digital Scholarship as an HKUST HUMA faculty member shares on her recent project!

Medicinal Animals and Datasets: A Digital Humanities Project

In this talk, Professor Chee will discuss her project about two “medicinal” animals: the saiga antelope and shark.

She will share on how the project created a comprehensive digital map tracing the ways saiga antelope and sharks were given new meanings as medicine and food over the 20th and early 21st centuries, and across the countries of East and Southeast Asia. In particular, she will highlight how these animals played an important role in trade and export in the PRC becoming “economic resources” catering to overseas markets, in East (Hong Kong) and Southeast Asia (Singapore and Malaysia).

About the speaker

Professor Liz Pui Yee CHEE is an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She was previously Senior Research Fellow in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Cluster at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) and a Lecturer at Tembusu College (both at the National University of Singapore (NUS)). Prof. CHEE was the first graduate of the Edinburgh University-NUS Joint PhD Program and had received her B.A. and M.A. from the National University of Singapore.

Her research centers on the history of medicine and pharmaceutics in modern China, and particularly the medicalization of animals. She was Co-PI on the grant “History and Sustainability of Animal-Based Drugs in Asian Traditional Medicines” with a focus on historicizing zootherapies (medical treatment using animals) in East and Southeast Asia, and understanding their relation to the wildlife trade and zoonotic (animal origin) diseases. She is currently writing her second book Drinking Antelopes: Making Animals Traditional, Chinese, and Medicine (under contract with University of California Press).

HMAW1905-recognized event

This is an HMAW1905-recognized event in the “Personal Enrichment & Community Service” category under the “Self-directed Experience” of HMAW1905: Behavioral Foundations of University Education: Habits, Mindsets, and Wellness.

To receive 1.0 hour, you must attend the event in full and miss no more than 10 mins.

Photos will be taken during the talk. By attending or participating in this event, you are giving your consent to be photographed and you are waiving any and all claims regarding the use of your image by the University.