I hold a PhD in Classics from University College Dublin, with a thesis exploring the interplay between Panhellenism and Greek identity in Isocrates. After completing my doctorate in Ireland, I took up a lectureship at Shandong University in China before joining Royal Holloway as a UKRI-funded Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. My broad research interests include ethnicity and historiography in ancient Greece and China, Attic oratory and classical rhetoric (particularly Isocrates), and the reception of the Graeco-Roman world in China.

My current research project applies an interdisciplinary framework to analyse the rhetorical strategies employed by Athenian orators who invoked ethnographic depictions of non-Greeks to elicit cognitive and emotional reactions from their audiences. This investigation considers a range of Athenian institutional contexts—including the Assembly, law courts, Panhellenic festivals, and public funerals—as well as smaller, private gatherings such as symposia and educational settings. Through this research, I aim to uncover ethnic biases, stereotypical assumptions, and potentially dangerous patterns of thought that underlie the rhetoric of the ‘other’ in both political and everyday discourse of classical Athens. 

In addition to my work on Attic oratory, I study the reception of Graeco-Roman texts in modern China through the lens of translation studies and from a cross-cultural perspective. In particular, I have studied Luo Niansheng’s translations of Aeschylus’ Persae and Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Through these studies, I hope to explicate the interrelations among identity, rhetoric, and politics, while shedding light on how Graeco-Roman classics shaped cultural encounters between the West and modern China, ultimately fostering intellectual dialogue across boundaries.