Biography
I joined Edinburgh Napier University as a lecturer in sociology and social policy within the social sciences programme in November 2022. Prior to that, I was a lecturer and the academic lead of the social work programme at Waikato Institute of Technology, New Zealand.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work (South-Central University for Nationalities, China), a Masters in International Development Studies (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), a MASTER de Sciences Humaines et Sociales mention sciences de l’education (Université Paris Nanterre, France) funded by the Erasmus Mundus scholarship from European Commission, and a PhD in Social Policy (Massey University, New Zealand) fully funded by a Royal Society New Zealand funded research project.
I am currently also serving as an Associate Editor for the journal International Migration Review, and the Book Review Editor for New Zealand Sociology published by Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand.
My main scholarship lies in the field of sociology of migration. More specifically, my research employs diverse theoretical perspectives to interrogate the intricate interactions between transnational migration regimes – including immigration policies, communication and transportation technologies, and the broader socioeconomic and political developments across the globe, to name a few – and the individual agencies of immigrants and their immediate social systems, for instance their families and ethnoracial communities. As a qualitative researcher, I often utilise narrative and ethnographic approaches to examine both the convergence and divergence of those interactions, and accordingly their influences on the immigrant population as well as the broader society. My current research focuses on understanding the correlation between the transnational migration experience and the family change within the new Chinese immigrant group in Australasia and Europe.
Apart from my main research interest in migration studies, I am also broadly interested in scholarly inquiries into social care provision and evaluation, critical social policy, social work education and practice, as well as family studies concerning inter-generational and multi-generational dynamics.
I am keen to supervise PhD students on those or related topics, and any expressions of interest from prospective candidates are welcome.