In November-December 2025 I undertook a rich and very rewarding research sojourn across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. The extended trip centred on academic exchange, public scholarship, and our ongoing work on heritage literacy. The journey began in Jeddah, where I was honoured to serve as a […]
I am delighted to announce the publication of my new article, co-authored with Zhen Li [李蓁], titled “Towards Understanding Heritage Literacy” (see link). This research provides a fresh perspective on the intersection of heritage and linguistics, introducing and defining the concept of heritage literacy through an ethnographic study […]
Last month I visited two universities in Doha, Qatar: Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Qatar University. At Hamad Bin Khalifa, I gave a talk on a linguistic concept I am currently developing, which expands on the concept of heritage literacy that I have been writing about. The talk, […]
I had a great time recording a podcast with Tazin Abdullah as part of the Language On The Move series, in collaboration with the New Books Network. You can listen to it here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-semiotics-of-muslimness-in-china Alternatively, you can also find the podcast on the Language On The Move website […]
I recently gave the plenary lecture at the annual symposium of the ‘Professional, Academic, and Work-Based Literacies’ (PAWBL) special interest group, which sits under the aegis of BAAL. The lecture, titled “Eat. Pray. Live. How Literacies of Food Heritage, Faith and Commerce Merge in Sino-Muslim China“, was based […]
On Sunday 15th October, Heng Wang and I presented on our Sino-Muslim Heritage Literacies project to an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars as part of a seminar series at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. The seminar was titled ‘A Semiotics of Sino-Muslim Heritage Literacy in China’ […]
Some literacy researchers refer to artefactual literacy as the study of literacy practices embedded in material cultural objects. Literacy practices that are connected to objects and physical experience are often key to heritage, in this case a fan that is used within a traditional tea ceremony. According to Dr Naoki Yamamoto, […]
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