I started at Bristol in 2017 as an affiliate of the Hong Kong History Project, funded by the Augustine Heard Studentship. This award provided the support to live and study in the UK, and a generous allowance for overseas research, workshop organisation at Bristol, and networking with peers. My experience was in turn augmented by the close professional and personal relationships formed with my cohort and the wider community of Hong Kong scholars; all of which directly stemmed from the initiative’s success at cultivating international research networks.
Following my PhD, further funding from the Augustine Heard donor and from the Centre allowed me to build a strong portfolio of work and complete my monograph The China Firm: Elite Americans and the Making of British Colonial Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023). As I transition into my next role as Assistant Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, I look back with gratitude at the professional training and space to grow that the studentship and fellowship provided, and at the opportunities, in general, that our donors have created for myself and for an up-and-coming generation of historians.