Decolonizing Risk Sociology
What a better way to kick off the reading week (half term break in UK universities) in a teaching-heavy term than being part of a discussion on decolonisation with leading risk theorists across different time zones? I enjoyed every bit of it which makes me miss in-person meetings. If this were in-person, some the discussions … Continue reading
BioGovernance Commons Launched!
Over the summer, I’ve founded a BioGovernance Commons, a transnational online policy forum with my two long-term collaborators: Kathleen Vogel at Arizona State University and Ruipeng Lei at Haungzhong University of Science and Technology This is our response to the negative impacts political tensions have on transnational research collaborations. The aim is to enable continuous … Continue reading
BBC The World Tonight Interview
I’m a fan of Radio 4’s ‘The World Tonight’, as when I was doing my PhD, this used to be the programme that I fell asleep with! (But nowadays, I listen to almost everything through Pocket Casts which blurs the timeline of all programmes). It was great to be interviewed on this programme and to have a … Continue reading
Kent Sociology – UG Students Make A Difference
I know it’s almost Halloween now, but the beginning of this academic year has been extremely hectic as we experienced a lot of timetabling issues. So finally, I’m able to share with you some of the projects I’ve been involved over the summer. One of them is a mini-series I made on five of our … Continue reading
BBC Documentary: China’s Great Science Leap
At the end of August, BBC Radio 4 launched a 2-episode programme on China’s science. Wohoo! I was so happy to see (or rather hear) it being broadcasted, for its editor Melanie Brown first got in touch with me about this idea in the summer of 2019. The original idea was to conduct interviews and … Continue reading
Media and New Editing Roles
Summer is not just for conferences but also for new collaborations and new beginnings. I was really glad to receive the invitation to join the editorial board of Economy and Society. I was also delighted to join the book project, Routledge Handbook of Global Political Participation. I’ll lead the sections relating to science and technology … Continue reading
Runner-Up Research and Innovation Prize 2021
Glad to be the runner-up for University of Kent’s Consolidator Research Prize this year. The other runner-up was Dr Marina Ezcurra at the School of Biosciences, who explores microbiota as an avenue for novel treatments to cognitive problems during ageing. This year’s winner was Dr Jennifer Hiscock at the School of Physical Sciences, whose research … Continue reading
Recent public lectures
Before you know it, the summer is already half way over! Although it’s another year where international travels are largely restricted, thanks to Zoom, VooV, Cisco and Teams (I’m sure I’m forgetting some other apps!), boisterous conversations are always a click away – minus the local beers and dubious quality conference coffees. I gave a … Continue reading
SGroup discussion
It was a real pleasure to lead the discussion on how to bridge European-Chinese Higher Education cooperation at the SGroup Think Tank Academy Conference last week. The SGroup – Universities in Europe (SGroup) network is a non-profit organization founded in 1989, composed of over 42 higher education institutions from 20 European countries and 4 countries outside Europe. In … Continue reading
Spain-China Foundation Interview
Thanks to Jesús Gámiz, my earlier conversation with Spain China Council Foundation, an organization fostered by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has now been published online. The focus is on the implication of China’s most recent Five Year Plan on transnational Research and Development collaborations:
Joy Zhang 