Dr Hang Lu

Teaching Fellow

Biography

Background

Dr Hang Lu is a Teaching Fellow at the Institute for Language Education, Moray House, The University of Edinburgh, and she is the Academic Cohort Lead for MSc Language and Intercultural Communication.

Dr Hang Lu completed her PhD in 2024, titled Foreign Language Education Policies and the Disparity between Urban and Rural Compulsory English Language Education in China — The Influence of Neoliberalism. With a Master’s degree in TESOL from UCL, UK and another in English Linguistics and Literature from Northeast Normal University, China, her expertise spans language education and policy, critical and sociological theory,  intercultural communication, and linguistic ethnography. 

Dr Hang Lu has been actively involved in developing and leading discussions on intercultural citizenship and language education, and her contributions have been recognised through various nominations, including the University of Edinburgh’s 2023-2024 Student Tutor of the Year, 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year, and 2025-2026 Cohort Lead of the Year (Shortlisted and Awarded). 

In addition to her academic role, Dr Lu co-founded FromWomen Community, which aims to empower and connect Chinese-speaking women in Edinburgh and beyond.

Dr Lu is open to collaborative opportunities and is enthusiastic about engaging in projects that align with her areas of expertise.

Postgraduate teaching

  • Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy 
  • Language Education for Intercultural Citizenship 

  • Critical Topics in Intercultural Communication Studies

  • Sources of Knowledge: Understanding and analysing research literature 

  • Conceptualising research: Foundations, assumptions and praxis

  • Text, Discourse and Language Teaching 

  • Language and Learner

  • Evaluation and Design of TESOL Materials

 

Dissertation Supervisor for:

MSc TESOL

MSc Language and Intercultural Communication

MSc Language Education

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am open to enquiries from prospective PhD students whose projects align with my areas of expertise. At present, I am available to contribute to doctoral supervision as a co-supervisor.

Current PhD students supervised

Eojin Jang - Investigating Hospitality in the Internationalisation of Korean Higher Education

Research summary

  • Intercultural communication and intercultural education
  • Critical approaches to language, culture and education
  • Language education and policy 
  • Critical and linguistic ethnography
  • Qualitative research methods

Current research interests

Dr Lu’s research focuses on language and intercultural education, with particular interests in language education policy, intercultural communication, critical sociological theory and linguistic ethnography. Her work examines how policies, institutions and cultural discourses shape subjectivities, aspirations, participation and belonging across educational, institutional and everyday contexts. Her current research extends from English language education to broader questions of critical interculturality, reflexivity and criticality in education and everyday institutional life. She is especially interested in how people construct, negotiate, and contest cultural representation, naming politics, multimodal meaning-making, and knowledge construction, and how subtle interactional conditions shape the possibilities for inclusion, exclusion, and agency.

Conference details

  1. Annual SIG Meeting in Intercultural Communication
  • 2026: Delivering a presentation on Designing Under Constraint: Intercultural Creativity, Vulnerability, and the Limits of Critical Practice
  1. American Association for Applied Linguistics
  • 2026: Delivering a presentation on Reimagining Language Policy Research: Bridging Critical Discourse Analysis and Ethnography in English Education in China
  1. British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
  • 2022: Poster presentation on Stratified ‘Nation-builders’: Urban and Rural Secondary School Students in English Language Education in China.
  • 2024: Delivering a presentation on Negotiating Nationalism and Neoliberalism: Conflicts and Compromises in English Language Teaching in China’s Compulsory Education.
  • 2025: Delivering a presentation on Practising Hope through Task-Based Language Teaching Ethnographic Accounts of Two English Teaching Practitioners
  1. British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE)
  • 2022: Delivering a presentation on Urban and Rural Secondary School Students’ Connection and Disconnection of Global-local Partnership in English Language Education in Modern China.
  • 2022: Volunteering in the organising team.
  • 2024: Delivering a presentation on Neoliberalism, Nationalism, and the Transformation of English Language Teachers in Mainland China.
  • 2026: Delivering a presentation on Becoming ‘Good’ Teachers: Generational Subjectivities under Curriculum Reform in China
  1. Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference
  • 2023: Delivering a paper on Marginalised ‘Nation-builders’: Rural Students in English Language Education at the Basic Education Stage Under the Encountering Between Neoliberalism and Nationalism in China.
  1. Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication Conference
  • 2023: Delivering a presentation on The Alliance and De-alliance Between Rural and Urban Junior Secondary School Students and English Language Education Policies in Modern China.
  1. Sociolinguistics Symposium 24 (Ghent University, Belgium)
  • 2022: Delivering a presentation on The Making of Neoliberal Subjectivities of Rural Students Under the English Language Education Policies in Modern China.
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