While HKU does not have an independent anthropology department, the discipline has had a long presence at the University. HKU Sociology’s founding Head (1967-69), Professor Keith Hopkins, was a historian of Classical Rome who combined an anthropological interest in myth and narrative with sociological demographics to paint a dynamic picture of social change in antiquity. The second Head (1969-87), Professor Murray Groves, was an anthropologist who had conducted field research in New Guinea. Since the founding of the Department in 1966, anthropology has always been a core stream of teaching and research, in which anthropologists work closely with sociologists and criminologists. Qualitative and ethnographic methods are strongly represented in all areas of the department.

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Anthropology has also always been central to the work of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, founded by the anthropologist Helen Siu in 2001. Within the Institute, anthropologists work closely with historians and scholars of other disciplines.

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More recently, the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine in the Faculty of Arts has become an important centre for medical anthropology in Hong Kong. Anthropologists also teach in the Faculty of Law, the School of English and in Japanese Studies.

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The HKU Anthropology Research Network, hosted by HKU Sociology, represents the latest stage in the development of anthropology within the University.