Dr. Cathy Pan received her PhD in Applied English Linguistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Jane Jackson before joining HKUST in 2011. At HKUST, she has developed, co-developed and delivered a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She served as the coordinator of the Division's School-Sponsored Common Core courses from 2012 to 2025. She is also the recipient of the Best Teaching Award of the School of Humanities and Social Science in 2023.
Courses Taught
HUMA1000A Cultures and Values: Language, Communication and Society
HUMA2023 Language and Intercultural Communication
HUMA3030 Language, Communication and Culture (GCS required elective)
MILE5000 Language Learning (Previously, MILE5001 Second Language Acquisition)
LANG5071 Postgraduate English for Humanities
Newly Approved Courses
HUMA2034 Language Planning and Policy in Asian Contexts
HUMA2035 Language in Action: Doing Discourse Analysis
HUMA1011 Linguistics in Life
Research Interests
Cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics, linguistic politeness, English for academic purposes and second language writing, study abroad and intercultural communication, experiential pedagogy
Selected Publications and Presentations
Pan, P. (2022). Experiential Learning under the Pandemic: Lessons and Gains from a Humanities Course on Cultures and Values. Oral Presentation at the CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2022, December 14 -16, 2022, Hong Kong.
Pan, P. (2019). “Most of the time, I will adopt a ‘speak less’ strategy”: Raising pragmatic and politeness awareness through instruction and online reflective writing. Paper presented at the 16th International Pragmatics Conference, June 9-14, 2019, Hong Kong.
Pan, P. (2015). Interculturality and intercultural communicative competence: A case of status-unequal email communication. Paper presented at the 14th International Pragmatics Conference. July 26-31, 2015, Antwerp, Belgium.
Pan, P. (2012) Interlanguage requests in institutional email discourse: A study in Hong Kong. In H. Woodfield & M. Economidou-Kogetsidis (Eds.), Interlanguage Request Modification (pp. 119-162). London: John Benjamins.
Pan, P. (2010) Making requests in institutional e-mails: Production, perception, cognition, & sociopragmatic awareness. Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Conference (AAAL 2010), March 6 - 9, 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Pan, P. (2009). Making requests in institutional e-mail communication: A cross-cultural pragmatic study. Current Issues in Linguistic Interfaces, 1, 389-402.