About

Ambra Minoli is a PhD student at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, under the supervision of Dr Liu Qian and Dr Susannah Wilson. Her PhD is funded by the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC).

Research

Her project explores the exotic and transcultural representations of 1930s Shanghai as reflected in modern Chinese and French literature, using Segalen's notion of exoticism - a sensation of surprise or difference that arises from encountering something outside of our current experience, whether in space or time - as a theoretical framework (Victor Segalen, 1978). She considers modern Shanghai as a ‘transcultural site’ (Peng Hsiao-yen, 2010).

Research Interests

Chinese Studies, French Studies, Languages and Literature, Comparative Literature, Transcultural Studies, Cultural History, Modern Chinese Literature, Republican Shanghai.

Publications

'An Aesthetic Portrayal of Republican-era Shanghai: The Exciting and Discordant Beauty of the Metropolis in Zhang Ruogu's Urban Symphony', Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 10.3 (2023), 48-61 <https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v10i3.920>

Conferences and Events

'An Aesthetic Portrayal of Republican Shanghai: The 'Exciting' and 'Discordant' Beauty of the Metropolis in Zhang Ruogu's Urban Symphony', 20-minute presentation for the University of Exeter's Global China Research Centre Graduate and ECR Seminar Series in Chinese Studies (8 March 2023)

'Shanghai as 'Paris of the East': Exotic and Uncanny Representations of Republican Shanghai', 20-minute presentation for the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) 25th Biennial Conference 2024 at Tallinn University, Estonia (28 August 2024)

International Summer Seminar 'From Late Imperial to Republican China Continuities and Ruptures' at Saint-Pierre d’Oléron in France, junior commentator (8-14 September 2024)

Teaching and Marking

LN102 (Translation: Methods and Practice), Sessional Teacher (Term 2, 2023/24)

LN910 (Translation and Transcultural Encounters between China and the West), marking (Term 3, 2023/24)

Scholarships and Awards

Apr 2022: M4C Doctoral Scholarship (AHRC), University of Warwick.

Dec 2017: Accredited Professional by Italy-USA Foundation. Access to the online course Global Marketing, Communication & Made in Italy.

Jun 2016: Programma Socrates/Erasmus, Università degli Studi di Bergamo (List of selected students). 6-month exchange programme at Dalian University of Foreign Languages, PRC.

Education

MSc in Chinese Studies (distinction), The University of Edinburgh, 2020.

BA in Modern Languages and Literatures (cum laude), Università degli Studi di Bergamo, 2017.