My major expertise is in research and business executive training in Intercultural Workplace communication. My research is highly interdisciplinary and incorporates the theories and methods from pragmatics, sociolinguistics and cross-cultural psychology. I work with authentic interactive data such as workplace meeting recordings and emails, as well as other ethnographic data such as interviews, field observation notes and various organizational documents. My current research interests include disagreement strategies, identity construction, and cultural othering and prejudice in intercultural conflict interactions.

Funded project

Resources for Interculturality in Chinese Higher Education (RICH-Ed). 2017 – 2020. EUR€ 593,385. Co-Investigator. Funded by EU Erasmus+, the European Commission.

Intercultural Communication in the Chinese Workplace: An Ethnographic Study of Crisis Management in a Multicultural Chinese Organization. 2015-2016. Principal Investigator. Funded by IAPS (Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies) UNNC.

Intercultural Competence in Multicultural Higher Educational Workplace contexts. 2015-2017. Co-Investigator. Funded by Bureau of Education, Zhejiang Province, China.

Orcid Account/ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4049-9753

I joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China in February, 2011. Before I went to study at Nottingham UK for my MA and PhD degrees, I worked as a lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Tsinghua University, China.

PGT and UG levels

Modules that I have designed and taught:

• Intercultural Communication (PGT)
• Sociolinguistics of Work (PGT)
• Discourse Analysis (PGT)
• Business and Organizational Communication (PGT)
• Workplace Discourse (UG)
• Language and Context (UG)

As the School Director of Teaching and Learning, I am responsible for management of teaching and learning activities, curriculum development, and quality assurance.

Training and Consultancy

I also conduct training workshops for executives and managers from different lines of business in China and the UK. The areas of training include intercultural conflict management, problem solving, cultural self perception and workplace behavior, etc. I also provide consultancy  and tailored training for individual organizations.