All Affiliates
Dr David Edmonds
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr David Edmonds

BSc, MSc Victoria University of Wellington; PhD CUHK

Contact Information

Phone

3917-4486

Email

edmonds@hku.hk

Profile

Dr. David Edmonds is a sociolinguist with a background in psychology. Broadly, his research interests lie in the study of social interaction and interpersonal communication. He is primarily interested in the study of healthcare encounters, with a special focus on interactions between doctors, patients, and relatives in end-of-life care settings. In addition, his research also investigates the interactional dimensions of psychology and the construction and negotiation of gender in social interaction. Methodologically, he draws upon sociolinguistic and ethnomethodological traditions and utilizes conversation analysis, video analysis and discourse analysis.

Currently, Dr. Edmonds is a Postdoctoral Fellow and is working on a project examining the challenges that working in end-of-life care settings presents for the mental well-being of healthcare professionals in Hong Kong. The project seeks to disentangle the effects of different socio-cultural and occupational stressors on the well-being of doctors and nurses working in end-of-life care. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide organizations with training and educational resources to help healthcare professionals develop effective skills to cope with the challenges of working in end-of-life care. This project is being undertaken as part of the Research and Impact Initiative on Communication in Healthcare (https://www.hkuriich.org/).

Publications

Journal articles

Edmonds, D.M., Zayts-Spence, O., Fortune, Z., Chan, A., & Chou, J.S.G. (2024). A scoping review to map the research on the mental health of students and graduates during their university-to-work transitions. BMJ Open, 14, e076729. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076729

Edmonds, D.M., Zayts-Spence, O., Fortune, Z., & Fung J.S.Y. (2023). Graduates' perceptions and employers expectations: Essential skills in Hong Kong workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Industry and Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/09504222231224087

Zayts-Spence, O., Edmonds, D., & Fortune, Z. (2023). Mental health, discourse and stigma. BMC Psychology, 11. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01210-6

Zayts, O., Edmonds, DM, Kong, BCK., & Fortune, Z. (2023). Mental health of new and recent graduates during the university-to-work transition: a scoping review protocol. BMJ Open, 13. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071357

Edmonds, D.M. & Pino, M. (2023). Designedly intentional misgendering in social interaction: A conversation analytic account. Feminism & Psychology. OnlineFirst.

Edmonds, D.M., Zayts-Spence, O., & Alder, K. (2022). Communicating in crisis: Reflections, opportunities, and challenges for healthcare communication in the COVID-19 pandemic Qualitative Health Communication 1(2). 104-117. https://doi.org/10.7146/qhc.v1i2.128540

Edmonds, D.M., & Greiffenhagen, C. (2021). Configuring prospective sensations: Experimenters preparing participants for what they might feel. Symbolic Interaction, 44, 183–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.485

Weatherall, A., & Edmonds, D.M. (2018). Speakers formulating their talk as interruptive. Journal of Pragmatics, 123, 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.11.008

Book chapters

Edmonds, D.M., Zayts-Spence, O., Yuen, J.K.Y. (2023). Exploring end-of-life care in palliative care consultations in Hong Kong. In O. Zayts-Spence & S.M. Bridges (Eds.), Language, Health and Culture. Routledge.

Edmonds, D.M., & Zayts-Spence, O. (2023). Conclusion: Advancing healthare communication research in 'Global Peripheries.'  In O. Zayts-Spence & S.M. Bridges (Eds.), Language, Health and Culture. Routledge.

Edmonds, D., & Weatherall, A. (2019). Managing verbal and embodied conduct in telephone-mediated service encounters. In P. Garces-Conejos Blitvitch, L. Fernandez-Amaya, & M. Hernandez-Lopez (Eds.), Technology Mediated Service Encounters (pp.71-95). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

All Affiliates
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Frederick Blumberg

BA Amherst; MA Dartmouth; JD Virginia; PhD Stanford

Contact Information

Email

blumberg@hku.hk

Profile

Frederick Blumberg's research and teaching focus on the literary genres and institutional discourses of early modern Europe. His scholarship examines problems in poetics, the uses of rhetoric, and the legal regulation of literature.

Publications

Articles:

“The Function of Names in U.S. Presidential Debates—Some Recent Powerplays," Performance Research, vol. 22, no. 6 (forthcoming 2017).

“Obscenity and Marginality,”Law and Humanities, vol. 11, no. 1 (2017): 7-23.

“Poétique de la censure dans le premier Index moderne,” translated by Laure Klein and Mireille Le Breton, Réforme Humanisme Renaissance, No. 68 (June 2009): 75-85.

Encyclopedia Entries:

“Kind” and “Decorum.” The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Roland Greene, Fourth Edition, Princeton University Press (forthcoming 2012).

Recent Conference Presentations

“The Bounds of Renaissance Prose Satire,”Renaissance Society of America, March 2017. Chicago, Illinois.

“The Art of Arts: Transcendental Dialectic in Early Modernity,” American Comparative Literature Association, March 2016. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Institutions of Poetry from Petrarch to Milton.” Renaissance Society of America, March 2014. New York City, New York. 

All Affiliates
Dr Jacqueline Militello
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Jacqueline Militello

BA Duke, MA Columbia, MATESoL Webster, PhD University of Hong Kong/King’s College London

Contact Information

Email
jackiem@hku.hk

Profile

Jacqueline Militello is a sociolinguist using linguistic ethnography to study language and communication in professional settings. Her work examines networking, small talk, conviviality, and linguistic indexing of identity in elite professional settings. Prior to completing her PhD, she taught business communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Washington University in St. Louis. During her 18 years in Tokyo she worked in finance at Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co, and in international trade consulting at PWC Consulting.

All Affiliates
Dr May Li
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr May Li

Contact Information

Email
mayxwl@hku.hk
All Affiliates
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Sinead Kwok

BA, PhD HKU

Contact Information

Email

sineadsk@hku.hk

Profile

Sinéad Kwok received her PhD in language and communication at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests lie in language philosophy, semiology and semiotics, communication theories, translation studies as well as textual studies. Having published papers in numerous journals, Sinéad’s monograph titled Translation in Signs is scheduled to be published in early 2026. She is currently the associate editor of Language and Communication and the executive editor of Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication. Sinéad Kwok received her PhD in language and communication at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests lie in language philosophy, semiology and semiotics, communication theories, translation studies as well as textual studies. Having published papers in numerous journals, Sinéad’s monograph titled Translation in Signs is scheduled to be published in early 2026. She is currently the associate editor of Language and Communication and the executive editor of Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication.

Publications

Published
  • Kwok, S. (2026). Translation in Signs: An Integrational Approach. London & New York: Routledge.
  • Kwok, S. (2024). Navigating contemporary linguistics and textual studies: an integrational semiology of textualization. In A. Pablé & D. Duncker (Eds.), Signs in Activities. New Directions in Integrational Linguistics (pp.165-187). London & New York: Routledge.
  • Kwok, S. (2023). (Bio)semiotics and translation: an open door or a closed book to each other? In A. Biglari (Ed.), Open Semiotics Volume 3 (pp.87-102). Paris: L’Harmattan.
  • Kwok, S. (2022). Contracting, expanding and integrating translation: who and where to draw the line? Forum Linguistico, 90: 7226-7247.
  • Kwok, S. (2021). Integrationism and postcolonialism: convergences or divergences? An integrational discussion on ethnocentricity and the (post)colonial translation myth. In S. B. Makoni, D. P. Verity & A. Kaiper-Marquez (Eds.), Integrational Linguistics and Philosophy of Language in the Global South (pp.137-155). London & New York: Routledge.
  • Kwok, S. (2020a). Postcolonial translation theories and the language myth: an integrationist perspective. Language Sciences, 80(3): 101286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2020.101286
  • Kwok, S. (2020b). The human-animal divide in communication: anthropocentric, posthuman and integrationist answers. Language and Communication, 74(1): 61-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.06.005

 

All Affiliates
Dr Mandy Yu
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Mandy Yu

BA HKBU; MA, PhD Lancaster

Contact Information

Phone
3917-1923
Email
mandyhmy@hku.hk

Profile

Mandy Yu received her PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and has been involved in four discourse analytical projects relating to Chinese masculinities, media representation of China, science education and corporate branding respectively. Her research interests include (critical) discourse analysis, pragmatics, language and gender, and media discourse.

All Affiliates
Dr Daozhi Xu
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Daozhi Xu

BA, MUC; MA, RUC; PhD, HKU

Contact Information

Email

xudz@hku.hk

Profile

Xu Daozhi holds a PhD in English literary studies from HKU. Her research interests include postcolonial studies, cultural theory, children’s literature, studies of race and ethnicity, and settler colonialism. Her monograph Indigenous Cultural Capital: Postcolonial Narratives in Australian Children’s Literature (2018) won the Biennial Australian Studies in China Book Prize, awarded by Australia–China Council in 2018. It was also shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) “Alvie Egan Award” in 2019. Her scholarly articles have appeared in Journal of Australian Studies, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, and Antipodes, etc. She is interested in translation and has translated or co-translated several books. She is on the Executive of the International Australian Studies Association.

Her ongoing research examines Indigenous and Asian encounters in contemporary Australian literature. Currently she is co-editing a special issue of Journal of Australian Studies on the theme of ‘Australian Studies in China’ (CFP).

Course offered in 2019-2020

 

COURSE CODE PROGRAMME
ENGL2012 Contemporary Literary Theory

Publications

Scholarly Book
  1. Xu Daozhi. Indigenous Cultural Capital: Postcolonial Narratives in Australian Children’s Literature. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2018. 

“This is a groundbreaking discussion of the representation of Aboriginal people in children’s literature. Importantly the book confirms Aboriginal agency through the deployment of indigenous cultural capital. The analysis of the circulation of cultural capital in Aboriginal writing is a significant and timely intervention into indigenous studies.”
—Bill Ashcroft FAHA, Professor, University of New South Wales

“In this persuasive, deeply researched study, Xu Daozhi demonstrates that Australian children’s books are powerfully invested in Aboriginal cultures. An impassioned call to see children’s books with fresh eyes, Indigenous Cultural Capital examines works by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal writers, investigating the ethics of representation and the issues associated with publication and reception.”
—Clare Bradford FAHA, Emeritus Professor, Deakin University

Refereed Journal Articles
  1. Xu Daozhi. “Liminality and Communitas in Literary Representations of Aboriginal and Asian Encounters.” Journal of Australian Studies. 42.4 (2018): 475–490.
  2. Xu Daozhi. “The Gift and the Ethics of Representing Aboriginality in Australian Children’s Literature.” Australian Aboriginal Studies 2 (2016): 33–45.
  3. Xu Daozhi. “Transformation and Collaboration in the Paratexts of Indigenous Children’s Literature.” Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian / New Zealand Literature. 30.2 (2016): 379–391.
  4. Xu Daozhi. “Australian Children’s Literature and Postcolonialism: A Review Essay.” Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies 69.2 (2016): 193–206.
  5. Clare Bradford, Catherine Sly, and Xu Daozhi. “Ubby’s Underdogs: A Transformative Vision of Australian Community.” Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 24.1 (2016): 101–131.
  6. Xu Daozhi, and Gary Harfitt. “Teacher Language Awareness and Scaffolded Interaction in CLIL Science Classrooms” Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education. (accepted; forthcoming in the issue of September 2019)
Scholarly Book Chapter
  1. Xu Daozhi. “The Politics of Memory: Autobiographical Narratives of Indigenous Child Separation.”《澳大利亚文化研究》(Australian Cultural Studies). Ed. Wang Guanglin and Chen Hong. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2016. 72–89.
Refereed Conference Paper Published in Full
  1. Xu Daozhi. “From ‘Silent Apartheid’ to ‘Cross-Curriculum Priority’: Aboriginality in the School Texts.” Australian Studies—Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of Australian Studies in China. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2018. (accepted; in press)
Other Research Outputs
Essay
  1. Xu Daozhi. “Australian poetry: Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’.” (written in Chinese)《澳大利亚研究纪念文集》(Commemorative Anthology of Australian Studies at Renmin University of China) Ed. Zhang Yongxian. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2010. 146–148.
Book Review
  1. Liu Qingjun and Xu Daozhi. “Historical Interpretation in the Cross-Cultural Contexts—China in the Westerners’ Eyes.” (written in Chinese) Book Review of Myself and China by Ross Terrill.《中国新闻出版报 (China Press and Publishing Journal) 》Oct 22, 2010: 7B.
Translated Books
  1. 《Water Music—水中曲》 (Alex Skovron’s collection of poems). Translation (from English to Chinese). Xu Daozhi. Macao: Association of Stories in Macao and Cerberus Press, 2017.
  2. 《Among the Gone of It—流逝》 (Patricia Sykes’ collection of poems). Translation (from English to Chinese). Xu Daozhi and Wu Xi. Macao: Association of Stories in Macao and Cerberus Press, 2017.
  3. Post-80 Poets of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Translation (from Chinese to English). Kit Kelen, Xu Daozhi, et al. Macao: The Association of Stories in Macao and Cultural Plus, 2013.
  4. 《我与中国》(Chinese translation of Myself and China authored by Ross Terrill). Translation (from English to Chinese). Liu Qingjun and Xu Daozhi. Beijing: Renmin University Press, 2010.
All Affiliates
Dr Amanda Cheung
Adjunct Assistant Professor

Dr Amanda Cheung

BA, MA London; MPhil, PhD Cantab

Contact Information

Email

amanche@hku.hk

Profile

Amanda Cheung studied Linguistics and Modern English Language at University College London before obtaining her MPhil and PhD in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge. Her research interest lies in the domain of psycholinguistics, with a particular focus on bilingual/multilingual language acquisition and language processing. She also maintains an interest in other areas of linguistics, including practical English phonology and sociolinguistics. Her current work centers on the acquisition and consolidation of semantic information in multilinguals.

 

Publications

Williams, J.N. & Cheung, A. (2011). Using priming to explore early word learning. In P. Trofimovich & K. McDonough (Eds.), Applying priming methods to L2 learning, teaching and research: Insights from psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.