​Research 

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I am an Associate Professor and sociologist at the University of Bath. ​

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My sociologically oriented research spans two interconnected areas. The first focuses on the lived experiences of under-represented groups, with particular attention to Chinese diasporic communities in sport, health, and education. I am interested in how subjectivities are formed and negotiated through self–other relations within local and global contexts. Drawing on sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives, this work explores how identities and embodied experiences emerge through interactions with social structures, cultural discourses, and relational encounters. In particular, I examine how colonial histories, migration processes, and dynamics of social cohesion shape embodiment, representation, and inequality within diasporic communities. Creative and participatory research methods are often developed alongside this work in order to engage experiences and forms of knowledge that are difficult to access through conventional methodological approaches.

 

The second area of my research focuses on theoretical developments related to cultural reproduction and academic imperialism. This work critically examines how knowledge is produced, circulated, and legitimised within global academic fields. My research has extended Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual framework to better understand the translocal experiences of physical education teachers, while also challenging dominant approaches in the sociology of the body and health that rely on entrenched dualisms. More broadly, this work interrogates colonial and imperial assumptions embedded within knowledge production and seeks to develop more reflexive and relational ways of constructing knowledge alongside under-represented communities. My theoretical orientation draws on interdisciplinary insights from sociology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and pedagogy.

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I was a recipient of the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2019-20). I gained my PhD from the University of Queensland on a competitive UQ research scholarship, and had worked and resided in Hong Kong, Brisbane, Sydney, and Leeds. I am an Honorary Adjunct Fellow of the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.​

 

Supervision and Teaching

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I am primary supervisor to four postgraduate research students and they are carrying out research on: an ethnographic study in kitesurfing in the lives of diasabled people (on SWDTP scholarship); online hate in football on Chinese social media (on Vice Chancellor's International Scholarship); gender and disability in China's Winter Paralympic Games; and mental health literacy and help seeking behaviour of university students in South Africa.

 

My teaching expertise includes qualitative research methods, sociology of sport and health, and sport media.

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Governance and Service

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I am deputy director of the Centre for Qualitative Research, and an ILM certified coach for the doctoral college network at University of Bath. Externally, I serve on the executive board of the International Society of Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, and I am an editorial board member of Sport, Education and Society.

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Qualifications 

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PhD (University of Queensland)

MA (Cultural Studies) (University of Sydney)

MPhil and BEd (Hons) (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

PGDip (Global Health) (University of Edinburgh)

ILM Level 5 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring 

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