Dr Leta Hong Fincher will give the first Book Talk of the academic year September 11 on 'Leftover' Women: the resurgence of gender inequality in China.
In this book, Dr Hong Fincher discusses a campaign by state media to convince women (and broader society) that it is a personal and social problem if educated urban women are unmarried by the age of 27. Combined with male preference in families and the resulting overwhelming male domination in the private property market, she explains how Chinese women have fared worse in the economic reforms and rising real estate market in China.
In October, Professor Ravindra S. Goonetilleke of HKUST's IELM department will discuss the importance of the design of everyday objects in promoting people's well-being. An expert on ergonomics, he invented the first intelligent seat, and developed controls to eliminate ergonomic hazards for companies like Procter and Gamble, GM, Dow, and many more. He was also a developer of the first PC based human modelling package, Mannequin, and led the Human Factors research at Nike to improve the comfort and performance of its sports shoes. His latest book is The Science of Footwear.