We are a research group that collectively works to investigate Chinese and Italian cultural mobilities. The work was supported by the following grants obtained by Dr. Zhang: SSHRC Insight Development Grants (2018-2020), The Arts Undergraduate Research Award, The International Work Learn Award, and Hampton Fund Research Grant – New Faculty Award, University of British Columbia.
Dr. Gaoheng Zhang
Dr. Zhang is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He researches broadly on Italy’s global history and connections using a cultural-studies approach. His more recent works address migration and mobilities in relation to Italian-Chinese exchanges, the longest-standing “West-East” communications in written record. His first book is titled Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012 (University of Toronto Press, 2019), which is the first detailed media and cultural study of the Chinese migration from both Italian and Chinese migrant perspectives, as well as one of the few book-length analyses of migration and culture.
Email me: gaoheng.zhang@ubc.ca
Alexandra Chipperfield
Alexandra Chipperfield is a recent graduate from the Political Science program at UBC. Her passion for exploring intercultural relations within Italy stemmed from her more personal relationship to the country itself. Having been born in the city of Bolzano, but being transported at a young age to Canada, gave her an introduction to some of Italy’s traditional aspects and societal customs. Alexandra enjoys exploring Italian identity and what it means within the global context. .
Email me: ali.chipperfield@icloud.com
Dr. Jennifer Lau
Jennifer Lau is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto and the host of Ask Jenn Anything Podcast for graduate students. Her dissertation (2017) examined Chinese and Canadian interactions of the nineteenth and twentieth century. The recipient of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Doctoral Fellowship and Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarship, Jennifer’s research encompasses transnational history, travel literature, and Chinese cultural studies.
Email me: jenn.lau@utoronto.ca
Other Contributors
Han Fei (website design)
Han is a PhD candidate in French literature at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Her doctoral thesis investigates the various expressions of global mobility, as seen in migrant literature in Québec, as well as in French contemporary novel from non-migrant authors. Her research interests extend to different aspects of transnational cultural exchanges such as tourism and translation studies.
She is the coordinator of Mobilities Group, a group of researchers with focus on a humanistic, interpretive, multilingual, culturally sensitive scholarship on multiple and intersecting mobilities. This group is also part of the Centre for Migration Studies, UBC. https://migration.ubc.ca/research/mobilities
Email me: hfei@student.ubc.ca
Cultural Mobilities Between Italy and China 