[CHERA Seminar] Post-Paper Academia: Reconnecting Smart Thinkers with Communities in Search of Solutions

Post-Paper Academia: Reconnecting Smart Thinkers with Communities in Search of Solutions

Date: November 12, 2026 (Thursday)

Time: 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm 

Format: Online via Zoom

Language: English

Registration: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/VugQKeIkQQCdL2DFLJ7pww#/registration

To help executive academics, senior administrators, government officials and academics of all stripes pave productive professional futures, this seminar sketches the rudiments of 'post-paper academia' – the future before our eyes in which academic work sheds its manic and quite recent obsession with papers and bibliometrics and shifts to instead play many and varying roles in diverse communities. To avoid grumbling, problems with 'papers' are taken as read in the background readings*. The seminar has a positive focus on the kinds of things communities will expect from academics, how such contributions can be managed and reported, and how to transition existing workforce.

*Background Readings

Coates, H., Hazeikorn, E., de Wit, H. & Delaquil, T. (2026). Editing Academic Struggles in the Era of Robot Instrumentalism. Policy Reviews in Higher Education.

Coates, H., Shi, J. & Yang, J. (2026). Will I Stay or Will I Go: Curating scholarly careers in the era of robot citation. International Journal of Chinese Education.

About the Speaker:

Professor Hamish Coates designs and strengthens higher education systems, institutions and leadership, and advances the field through teaching, leadership, research, innovation, and advising. His career spans 30 years with executive appointments at top universities, major project leadership, strategy and governance, and large publication and international engagement. Professor Coates served as an Honorary Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, as a Tsinghua University Visiting Professor, and as Executive Dean of Holmes Institute, Australia's largest independently owned higher education institution. He was a Tenured Professor at Tsinghua University's Institute of Education, Director of the Higher Education Research Division, and Deputy Director of Tsinghua's Global Research Centre for the Assessment of College and Student Development. He was a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, Founding Director of Higher Education Research at the Australian Council for Educational Research, and Program Director at the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Leadership and Management.

All are welcome!

Enquiries: [javascript protected email address]