Dr Meishan Zhang
Biography
I am the IRC Post doctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University. My project, "Interpreting Justice: An Exploration of Chinese Immigrants' Experiences in the Immigration System in Ireland" is funded under the Irish Research Council's Enterprise Partnership Scheme and partnered with the Crosscare Migrant Project. I am co-supervised by Dr Rebecca King-O'Riain at the Department of Sociology and Ms Amy Tyndall from Crosscare Migrant Project. My research aims to investigate Chinese immigrants' experiences obtaining policy-related information and how that might shape providing professional, up-to-date consulting services by Chinese and English language-speaking advisers.
I obtained my BA in Museum Studies and Archaeology (2013) from Nankai University, MA in Museum and Gallery Studies (2014) from University of St. Andrews, and PhD in History (2021) from Trinity College Dublin. My PhD research was funded by the TCD Studentship Award. It examine the sweeping changes in the material culture of Republican Shanghai by focusing on the production and adaptation of medical equipment, as well as the political, cultural and social variations proactively brought by politicians, medical professionals, intellectuals, the media and consumers.
After obtaining my PhD degree, I had three years of experience teaching Chinese language at the Department of Chinese Studies at Maynooth University. I am very interested in innovative and project-based learning. My “DIY Audiobooks” project was selected for the 2022 SPARK Initiative. My experimental collaboration with the UK-China Film Collab led to the Summer Programme for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) project “The Influence of Films on Students’ Chinese Language Learning Experience” and a feasibility study on collaborations between educational Institutes and art organisations. I have also been exploring the combination of escape rooms and language study. My project, “The Construction of Cultural Products Combining Immersive Games and Chinese Teaching”, part of the International Chinese Language Teaching Practice Innovation Project (YHJXCX22-058), funded by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation in China, will launch three escape games for Chinese language learners in October 2023, together with my co-investigators, Ms Yang Cheng and Ms Can Shao.
Apart from my research and language teaching role, I began my work with the Crosscare Migrant Project as a volunteer interpreter in 2017. Then, I became an Information and Advocacy Officer at Crosscare Migrant Project in March 2022, providing information on immigration to the Chinese community in Ireland. The client work has made me realise the lack of social support and voice for the Chinese and other immigrants, inspiring me to bring such issues to my academic career.
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