Dr. Jin Dai is a researcher in the field of social science, with a specific focus on media and communication, visual anthropology, cultural memory and heritage studies, and popular culture in China. Jin earned a dual BA degree in English Literature and Journalism from Southwest University in China in 2015. She then achieved a Master of Arts with Distinction in Global Media Communication from the University of Melbourne in 2017, before being awarded her PhD in Media and Communication at Loughborough University in 2023.

Jin possesses a sustained interest and passion for exploring minority groups’ identity negotiation through media practices and vernacular and popular culture. Her particular focus within ‘minority groups’ includes overseas Chinese communities and ethnic minorities in China. Before embarking on her PhD, Jin served as a journalist at Xinhua News Agency in China. Drawing from her professional experience and academic training, she has extensive experience conducting (participatory) ethnographic interviews and specialises in research combining ethnography and discourse analysis.

Prior to joining the ECura project at UCC, Jin held the position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (Grade-7) at the University of Liverpool and was a visiting scholar through the funded MCI scholars in residence programme at the Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester.

Peer-reviewed conferences and presentations:

  • Dai, J. (2023) ‘The World of Yesterday’: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Liminal Memories of the Mao Era. In British Association for Chinese Studies (BACS) Conference, King’s College London, UK.
  • Dai, J. (2023) “Family Archive and Mediated Remembering of Han Communities in Xinjiang”, In Memory Studies Association (MSA) Seventh Annual Conference, Newcastle University, UK.
  • Dai, J. (2023) “Between Official and Vernacular Memory: Mediated Remembrance of Han Migration to Xinjiang”. In Early Career Researcher (ECR) seminar 2023 of Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester, UK.
  • Dai, J. (2022) “Practices of Remembering” via Family Photographs: How Family Photographs Work as Memory Objects for Circulating Public and Vernacular Remembering of Resettlement. In Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) Conference 2022: Nationalism and Media. University of Antwerp, Belgium.
  • Dai, J. (2021) “Between Public and Vernacular Memory: Mediated Representation and Remembrance of Han Migration to Xinjiang in Museum Photographs and Family-owned Albums”, In 2021 Mnemonic Summer School, held by the Mnemonic Network of Memory Studies. Aarhus University, Denmark.
  • Dai, J. (2021) “(De)nationalising Memories: Interrogating Chineseness from the “Peripheries”. In Memory Studies Association (MSA) Fifth Annual Conference, Warsaw, Poland.
  • Dai, J. (2021) “Between Public and Vernacular Memory: Remembering Han Migration to Xinjiang via Photographs”, during CM & SPS seminar series. Loughborough University, UK.
  • Dai, J. (2018) “A cross-generational analysis of media and identity among Han migrants in Xinjiang since the 1950s”, In Nations and Nationalisms: Theories, Practices, and Methods. International Postgraduate Conference held by the Loughborough University Nationalism Network (LUNN), in collaboration with the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN). Loughborough University, UK.

Conference Organisation:

As a representative PhD researcher engaged with organising the international postgraduate conference “Media, Memory and History”, held in Loughborough University, London. (This conference is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, formed a part of the Migrant, Memories, and Post-Colonial Imagination project led by Professor Emily Keightley.)

Publications:

  • Dai, J. (finished the draft). Between Empowerment and Censorship: Cultural Hybridity and Identity Negotiation of Xinjiang Hip-Hop Music. Ethnic and Racial Studies.
  • Dai, J. and Pfoser, A. (under the peer-reviewed). Rituals, Transmission, and Community Construction: Vernacular Photographs of Han resettlement to Xinjiang and Practices of Remembering within families. Memory Studies.
  • He, T. and Dai, J. (2017) “The Marriage and integration of  Yelu Chucai Family”,  Journal of Xinjiang University, vol. 03.
  • (The article is the result of the general project of the National Social Science Foundation of China, “History of Qidan Literature” (14BZW161); and the project of Xinjiang University, “Research on Qidan Literary Literature” (BS150117), which received financial support).

Award & Honour

  • 2023 MCI Visiting Scholars in Residence Programme for early career researcher, Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester
  • 2021-2022 The Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad Provided by China Scholarship Council (The award, starting in 2003, was founded by the Chinese government with the purpose of rewarding the academic excellence of self-financed Chinese students studying overseas)
  • 2021-2022 Santander-Loughborough University PhD Scholarship for Academic Exchange
  • 2021-2022 Loughborough University School of Social Sciences PhD Academic Conference Scholarship, UK
  • 2015 Excellent Undergraduate Dissertation, School of Foreign Languages, Southwest University