M. Maksud Ali
recently graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and is currently working as a sessional academic in the School of Education at UQ. Prior to commencing his doctoral studies, Dr Ali worked full-time as as sistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr Ali’s research focuses on the policy and practices of English language education in the context of globalisation. His works have been published by leading international journals, including TESOL Quarterly (Wiley); English Today (Cambridge University Press); ELT Journal (Oxford University Press); Language Assessment Quarterly (Routledge); Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education (Routledge); and Comparative Education Review (Chicago University Press). He contributed half a dozen chapters to edited volumes during his doctoral candidacy which were published by Routledge, Springer, and Bloomsbury.
Elizabeth Allotta
graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and is currently a sessional academic in the School of Education at UQ, while continuing in a full-time middle leadership position in an elite independent school in Brisbane. She has 15 years experience as a high school teacher with particular interests in science and STEAM education. Her research interests focuses on the experiences and challenges encountered by continuing teachers, as well as the experiences of doctoral students studying in Australian universities. Elizabeth is a member of research group exploring the experiences of doctoral students and an academic witting group, DRAW (Departing Radically in Academic Writing). She has authored a number of text and educational resources for high school students and coauthored academic papers related to nutrition and physiology in a past life. She has also edited another volume in this series and is currently editing an additional volume.
Danwei Gao
is an Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Studies, Northeastern University, Qinhuangdao (China). Her research interests, originally inspired by her experiences of motherhood, focus on language use and language life within family and societal contexts. In her doctoral thesis, she skilfully articulated sociological and sociolinguistic theories to examine real-life language
Huan Yik Lee
is currently senior lecturer at the Language Academy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Technology Malaysia (UTM). He is a doctoral graduate and currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia. He obtained his BEd TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) from the University of Exeter, UK and completed a Masters in English Language Education from the University of Malaya (UM). Dr Lee was a Chevening Scholarship recipient and graduated with a MSc in Public Policy from the Department of Political Science, University College London, UK. His peer-reviewed papers have been published in highly reputable journals, and he has been an invited speaker at many local and international conferences and academic presentations. Dr Lee’s research interests are in the field of language policy and planning, English language education, multilingual education, education policy, management and leadership, international and comparative education, and teacher education.
Yifei Liang
is a researcher from the School of Education, University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. Yifei completed his doctorate at UQ in 2023. His research focuses on learner-teacher partnerships, student engagement, and relational pedagogy in higher education teaching and learning. He was born and raised in China and has lived, studied, and worked in Australia for eight years. Dr Liang is currently working as a casual academic at UQ and is always learning and embracing different viewpoints.
currently serves as a sessional academic in the School of Education at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. He earned his doctorate at the same institution, exploring the stories of women with refugee backgrounds navigating postgraduate studies in Australia. Before completing his doctoral studies, he worked as a teacher educator, youth educator, and researcher in community educational organisations and universities, both in Pakistan and Australia. His professional interests in education revolve around issues of equity and justice with a specific focus on enhancing the access and participation of disadvantaged students in educational processes.
Garth Stahl
is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. He is interested in the relationship between education and society, socio-cultural studies of education, student identities, equity/inequality, and social change. Currently, his research projects and publications encompass theoretical and empirical studies of youth, sociology of schooling in a neoliberal age, gendered subjectivities, equity and difference, as well as educational reform.
Aaron Teo
is a Singaporean Chinese migrant settler living on unceded Yuggera and Turrbal lands. He is an education sociologist working as a lecturer in the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Education. Aaron is convenor for the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Social Justice Special Interest Group, Queensland convenor for the Asian Australian Alliance, member of the Challenging Racism Project, and member of the Advisory Committee for the Australian Human Rights Commission’s study into racism in Australian universities. He is also winner of the 2023 Carolyn Baker Memorial Prize (UQ) and the State Library of Queensland’s 2024 John Oxley Honorary Fellow. Aaron’s research focuses on migrant ‘Asian’ teachers’ raced and gendered subjectivities in the Australian context, as well as critical pedagogies in white Australian (university and school) classroom spaces. He is interested in experiences at the nexus of migration, racism, sexism, and multiculturalism in Australian education.
Preeti Vayada
completed her doctoral degree in the School of Education, University of Queensland (UQ) where she leads her expertise as a sessional academic while also making a significant impact as a special needs teacher, particularly in inclusive education and working with youth with disabilities. Her doctoral
Yang Zhao
is a Research Fellow in Social Science at the Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. As a social anthropologist by training, Yang’s research aligns closely with interdisciplinary scholarship, particularly anthropology and public health, in exploring gender and health inequalities with a focus on sexually transmitted infections in Central Asia and China. Yang was born and raised in mainland China and received his postgraduate training in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Australia. Yang has gained international research, teaching, and project management experience in the UK, Ethiopia, Zambia, Australia, Uzbekistan, China, and the USA since 2003.