July 2019- Shandong University Summer School

It was a real pleasure to teach at Shandong University’s 2019 summer school on ‘China in global governance’ along with Yves Tiberghien, Tim Niblock and of course Michael Barr. My lectures were, not surprisingly, focused on global science governance. It was a novel area to most of the students. But I was really impressed by their … Continue reading

July 2019-Risk Society Legacies Plenary, STEPS Uncertainty Symposium

It was a wonderful experience to be part of ESRC STEPSCentre symposium in July, The Politics of Uncertainty: Practical Challenges for Transformative Action. This was definitely one of most interdisciplinary conference I’ve attended on the topic of risk. A series of blog posts reflecting on the event includes contributions from Richard Bronk, Emery Roe, Mark … Continue reading

FRIED Seminar

This Valentine’s Day let’s talk about ‘good food’ (and good social movement)! Next Thursday I’ll be in Edinburgh and giving a FRIED (Food Researchers in Edinburgh) seminar titled ‘Cosmopolitan risk community in a bowl: The search for ‘good food’ in China’. The ‘Good Food Movement’ is what I’ve followed for the past few years. This … Continue reading

Policy Impact in China

I’m really delighted to share the news that on 3 January 2019, Ministry of Science and Technology in China has officially accepted a set of policy recommendations on increasing transparency and public accountability of Chinese science and have circulated these recommendations in their Neican. ‘Neican’ refers to valued policy submissions which are put forward to ministers and other … Continue reading

Call for Papers

I’m organising this open panel on Decolonizing Science. I look forward to you joining our discussion! Submission portal: https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ssss/4s19/ Deadline: Feb 1, 2019 Open Panel 33. Decolonizing Science: Where Have We Gotten To? Joy Zhang, University of Kent;  Michael Barr, Newcastle University The global trajectory of scientific innovations seems to be both interrupted and regenerated … Continue reading

Berlin, Berlin!

I’m so thrilled to have visited Berlin TWICE this autumn. The first trip was in late September. Thanks to Prof. Yasemin Soysal’s invitation, I attended the ‘Cultural Mobilities and their Transnational Entanglements in East Asia’ workshop and shared my findings on how transnational influences shaped grassroots and government’s understanding on ‘Modernity’ in different ways. Given the fact … Continue reading

Fellowship, Ministry Lecture, iGEM

Phew What an October! Three updates: Visiting Fellowship at Beijing University of Technology My October started in Beijing, where I was awarded a competitive ‘Foreign Expert Visiting Fellowship’  by Beijing University of Technology. This fellowship provided financial and administrative support for me to establish exchange with staff and students on the topic of ‘What’s the … Continue reading