Speaker Biography
Yu Hua is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Language Sciences and a Master's Supervisor. She received her Ph.D. through a joint doctoral program between Zhejiang University and the University of Leeds, and was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University (2015-2016). She employs anthropological methods to investigate language policy and education, community education, classroom assessment language, and cultural heritage studies. She believes that research in the humanities and social sciences can contribute to a better society.
Time and Venue
Date & Time: Thursday, April 10, 2025, 12:00–13:00
Venue: SISU Songjiang Campus, Building 5, Room 136
Lecture Title： Ethnographic Approaches to Language Policy: Listen to What One Says and Observe What One Does
Lecture Content Summary
Language policy research is an interdisciplinary field. Researchers need to start from their research questions and draw on methods and theories from linguistics, political science, sociology, anthropology, and other disciplines to investigate the processes of language policy. Ethnographic research has attracted increasing attention from scholars due to its closeness to social reality, its grounding in specific contexts, its foundation in concrete cases, and its engagement with diverse, humanistic questions. This study proposes that Confucius's principle of listening to what one says and observing what one does is key to ethnographic research. In other words, both words and actions constitute the research data that ethnographers need to carefully collect and the subjects they need to document in their writing. Through the narration and analysis of specific research cases, this lecture will demonstrate the importance of listening to what one says and observing what one does in fieldwork. The researcher argues that such on-site observation and interaction are built on interpersonal trust and communication—a form of social practice that current artificial intelligence cannot replace, representing a profound understanding of the world and human affairs.
