Dr Ya-Chun Liu

Profile

I am a native speaker of Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien. I obtained my PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2020. I was awarded one of the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships for Research Excellence (International) to conduct my PhD research. My thesis examined the cross-cultural transfer of Christian literature from the Anglophone world into Taiwan from a socio-political perspective. 

I have diverse research interests. Before joining Leeds in 2019, I had a one-year research stay in the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT, Tübingen, Germany). During my time as a resident fellow in the ERCCT, I conducted comparative research on the introduction of 'Transitional Justice' as a political paradigm into contemporary Chinese-speaking contexts from socio-cultural and linguistic perspectives. 

I currently serve as a council member for the British Association for Chinese Studies.

Responsibilities

• Co-Director of East Asian Studies (Student Support)
• LCS PGR Mentor

Research interests

Trauma and justice in the Sinophone world remains a core aspect of my research and teaching practices. My current fields of research also include the role of faith and religion in the Chinese cultural sphere, and issues of linguistic justice in Chinese-speaking contexts. 

Qualifications

• PhD in Translation Studies (University of Nottingham, UK)
• MA in Foreign Literatures (National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
• BEd in Educational Psychology and Counseling; BA in English (National Taiwan Normal University)

Professional memberships

• Council Member, British Association for Chinese Studies
• Society of Sinophone Studies

Student education

I contribute to the delivery of core Chinese language modules, from the beginners’ level to the advanced level. I also teach Sinophone literature, culture, and history on different content modules. 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for World Literatures

Current postgraduate researchers

• Jiaqing Fu (Frankie)
• Chenye Xu