Miaojun She, M.A.

After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in communication studies at Sun Yat-Sen University in the People’s Republic of China, I attended the University of Göttingen to pursue a master’s degree in social and cultural anthropology with a minor in East Asian Studies/Modern China. I finished my master thesis about changes of family relations and the concept of adulthood in the transnational Nuer families.

I work as a doctoral researcher in the collaborative DFG-funded Research Training Group “Doing Transition. Formen der Gestaltung von Übergängen im Lebenslauf” at Goethe University Frankfurt and Eberhard Karls University Tübingen since January 2020. The topic of my doctoral research is “Growing up in Diaspora. Adulthood and Transnational Familyhood of the African refugees in Germany”. This project puts the focus on the transition to adulthood, the transnational life experience and changes of family relations among the East African refugees, which contributes to the research training program on the level of individual shaping of transitions in age and in social roles.

Abstract of the research project 

With the global population of refugees reaching a record high again and again, the welfare of refugees becomes a central topic in the public discourse worldwide. In the last years, Germany has been the third largest recipient of new asylum claims and has devoted great efforts in providing supports for the refugees and asylum-seekers. While their need for material assistances is well recognized, less attention is paid on their need for mental security and progression. In face of the fact that nearly half of the refugee population are underage and many of them are separated from their parents or other elder relatives, the welfare of young refugees in the aspect of psychological health and transition into adulthood should gain more recognition and assistance. This research is an effort to understand the dynamics between individual biographical coherence, generational relations and forced migration experiences among the young African refugees in Germany, and thus to advance insights into the research fields of life course studies and refugee studies and to provide practical suggestions about refugee welfare in Germany.

Publication

She, Miaojun. “Constructing an Ethnicity: Miao in the Chinese Narratives during the Qing Era”, in: The Irish Journal of Asian Studies. Volume 6: Chinese Borders: Transcultural and Historical Perspectives. 2020 (6): 38-54.