The Academy was established in April 2011 with 39 foundation fellows drawn from Hong Kong's eight institutions of higher education funded by the University Grants Committee.

[1] In 2015, the First Book Prize was won by Catherine Ladds of Hong Kong Baptist University for her book Empire Careers: Working for the Chinese Customs Service 1854–1949, published in 2014 by Manchester University Press.

[3][4] The runner up was Dennis Tay of Hong Kong Polytechnic University for his book Metaphor in Psychotherapy: A Descriptive and Prescriptive Analysis published in 2013 by John Benjamins.

The HKAH has held the following symposia: Fellows in the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities are recognized by their peers as scholars of the highest academic distinction, or eminent practitioners of the arts, and honored for their lifetime contribution to the humanities.

[5] Founding Secretary, Professor David Parker (1943–2015) of Chinese University of Hong Kong's Research Centre for Human Values, died on 29 October 2015 and served as Vice-President of the HKAH at the time.