Visiting Fellowship

University Research Centre for Culture, Communication, and Society

School: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU)

Department: University Research Centre for Culture, Communication, and Society

Position: Visiting Fellow

Location: Suzhou, China

Employee Duration: Two-month fellowship (to be undertaken between 1 January and 31 August 2024)

CENTRE OVERVIEW

The University Research Centre for Culture, Communication and Society (CCCS) houses research in culture, communication, and society, broadly defined. It draws together researchers from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and proximal disciplines in, for example, the School of Design and the School of Languages. CCCS fosters research that is (1) interdisciplinary, (2) international in outlook, (3) intercultural in content, (4) impactful on the wider community of Suzhou, while (5) raising the profile of the University’s research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Its main activities are collaborative research and intellectual exchange within research groups (Heritage & Communication, Health Humanities, Urban & Culture, and Language & Technology). Each research group is led by Research Group Leaders, who report to the Centre Director and the Leadership Team. Each group hosts visiting fellows, through an annual fellowship programme of national and international scholars. Research groups are also explicitly interdisciplinary and, where possible, focused on policy-relevant research in collaboration with the XIPU Institution (the University’s Thinktank). Other activities include seminar series and conferences. The details of the research groups as follows,

The Language & Technology Research Group expects researchers who have rich experience in any field of language teaching and research. We also look forward to scholars in technology for language teaching and learning including AI or Generative AI.

Contact: Dr Bin Zou: bin.zou@xjtlu.edu.cn

The Health Humanities Research Group takes an interdisciplinary approach to topics such as the representation of health and illness in cultural texts, the interaction between health, culture and religion, the language of health and illness. We have current ongoing projects in the areas of health and medicine in the Global South, and healthcare and ageing. Scholars who can contribute in any of these areas are particularly encouraged to apply.

Contact: Dr Penelope Scott: Penelope.scott@xjtlu.edu.cn and Dr Yuexi Liu: Yuexi.liu@xjtlu.edu.cn

The Urban & Culture Research Group explores diverse urban experiences in multiple ways. It highlights its interdisciplinary feature by engaging different disciplines such as sociology, public policy, geography, political science, anthropology, cultural studies and other related areas. With a particular focus within the East Asian Region, especially Greater China Region studies (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), this research group highlights its particularities by doing research in a comparative manner by engaging existing research across different countries to push forward the theoretical boundary, it also carries out cross-disciplinary research to inform and influence debates on a broad range of issues on urban environments. This group’s three main strands of research are: urbanisation, urbanism and environmental humanities.

Contact: Dr Liu Cao: Liu.Cao02@xjtlu.edu.cn

The Heritage & Communication Research Group explores the preservation, representation, and utilisation of cultural heritage, including in terms of the built environment (e.g., conservation, regeneration and revitalisation, economic growth and sustainability), creative industries (e.g., film and TV industries, new media technologies/social media) and identity-building through cultural representation (e.g., cultural diplomacy and nation-branding). This intersects with questions of identity, agency, and ownership in intellectual, political or economic terms.

Contact: Prof Xiaoling Zhang: xiaoling.zhang@xjtlu.edu.cn; Dr Yiping Dong: yiping.dong@xjtlu.edu.cn

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

The CCCS visiting fellowship programme is the Centre’s major initiative. CCCS invites scholars at different stages of their academic career whose research record and current plans fall within the purview of one of the CCCS research groups: heritage & communication, health humanities, urban & cultures, and language & technology. Fellows will be hosted by a relevant research group. Fellowships normally last two months, over the course of which fellows shall:

• pursue a course of research that results in significant, internationally recognised, peer-reviewed output(s), as sole author or in collaboration with researcher(s) in the host Research Group;
• give at least one research seminar on current research;
• attend research group meetings and seminars in their area of research;
• give a research training workshop on an aspect of interdisciplinary or intercultural research collaboration, dissemination, and/or grant capture, as appropriate to their experience and skillset;
• work with the host Research Group Leader(s) to identify and collaborate with one or more group members on a future, collaborative project, ideally with a view to applying for external funding.

Visiting fellows will conduct duties in a hybrid (face-to-face and virtual modes) manner, as agreed with the host Research Group Leader(s).

Personal Attributes

• a commitment to interdisciplinary and intercultural research
• excellent communication and interpersonal skills commensurate with playing a significant role within a team of committed academic colleagues together with the demonstrated ability and willingness to work in a collaborative environment.

Essential Qualifications/Experiences

• a doctorate or appropriate professional qualification
• current employment at a higher education institution
• experience of or evidence of potential for leadership in research, especially in leading research units or teams
• international or significant national standing and peer recognition within the relevant field of research, as evidenced by, for example: substantial volume of consistent output of high-quality refereed publications; research funding record as appropriate to the discipline; honours, prizes or awards within the field
• evidence of understanding of research dissemination and funding trends within specific national or cultural contexts 

COMPENSATION PACKAGE

This position carries with it a combination of honorarium and accommodation/travel expenses (for visiting fellows), to the value of 20,000 RMB.

HOW TO APPLY

For informal inquiries, please contact Research Group leaders and/or CCCS Acting Director, Prof. Beibei Tang: Beibei.Tang@xjtlu.edu.cn

Please submit your application via email to cccs@xjtlu.edu.cn, by 15 November 2023.

Applications must be submitted in a single pdf file that includes 4 parts in the order of:

• A brief cover letter (2 pages max)
• A current CV (including information on right to work in China if applying for visiting fellowship)
• A research proposal (4 pages max) including: whether applying for visiting or virtual fellowship; research project to be pursued; potential areas of collaboration with XJTLU-CCCS research; identification of likely host research group; and potential research training workshop topic
• Contact details for three references