Faculty & Staff

Assistant Professor | Institute of Education, Xiamen University, Xiamen, P.R.C                    Aug. 2025-Present

Postdoctoral Researcher | Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R.C                                Nov. 2022-Dec. 2024  

§ Funded by Outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher Scheme, Zhejiang University

Ph.D. | The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR                                             Sep. 2019-Aug. 2022

Master of Arts | East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, P.R.C         Sep. 2016-Jan. 2019                                            

Bachelor of Arts | Qingdao University, Qingdao, P.R.C                                                Sep. 2012-Jun. 2016

Zeng, L., Sun, X., Wu, H. et al. (2025). Cultivating global minds: the development of undergraduates’ international capabilities at an elite university in China’s Yangtze River Delta. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 12, 1362. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05599-w

Sun, X.¹, & Wu, H.* (2024). Academic return migration amidst North-to-South trend: an integrative inquiry into the case of Chinese international STEM researchers. Studies in Higher Education (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2407517

Sun, X.¹, & Wu, H.* (2024). A temporal-agential lens on the reintegration experiences of Chinese early career STEM returnees. Studies in Higher Education (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 50(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2327627

Sun, X. (2023). Doctoral pathways to imagined futures in higher education: two Hong Kong cases. Teaching in Higher Education (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 30(1), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2244443

Sun, X.¹, & Wu, H.* (2023). Surfacing the conceptualizations of international PhD student agency: the necessity for an integrative research agenda. Higher Education (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 87(5), 1569-1584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-01079-9

Sun, X. (2023). Characterising multiple trajectories towards the reflexive PhD project within a neoliberalist landscape. Higher Education (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 87(5), 1453–1470. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-023-01073-1

Sun, X.¹, & Trent, J. (2022). Shaping a sustainable doctoral pathway: A critical analysis of reflexive mediation between structure and agency in the PhD experience. Higher Education Research & Development (SSCI, JCR-Q1), 42(2), 468-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2073979

Sun, X.¹, & Cheng, M. W. (2022). Conceptualising manifestations and shapers of doctoral student agency: A subject-centered approach. Journal of Further and Higher Education (ESCI), 46(7), 898-912. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.2020222

Sun, X. (2021). A life story study of PhD students (re)constructing their multivoiced identity. Studies in Continuing Education (SSCI, JCR-Q2), 44(3), 409-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2021.1872523

Sun, X.¹, & Trent, J. (2020). Promoting agentive feedback engagement through dialogically minded approaches in doctoral writing supervision. Innovations in Education and Teaching International (SSCI, JCR-Q2), 59(4), 387-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2020.1861965

Sun, X.¹, & Trent, J. (2020). Ongoing doctoral study process to live by: A narrative inquiry into the doctoral identity construction experiences—A Chinese case. Frontiers of Education in China (ESCI), 15(3), 422-452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-020-0018-4

Sun, X. & Wu, H. (2024). More STEM PhDs come home as China’s global standing soars. University World News. Available at https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20241015145513146

§ Principal Investigator Conceptualizing early career academic trajectories in transnational mobility: A life-course agency perspective (China Postdoctoral Science Foundation)

§ Research Assistant An international perspective on the attributes of higher education hubs in the Yangtze River Delta (National Social Science Fund of China) 

§ Research Assistant Study on the development model of academic English literacy for undergraduates in Chinese research universities (National Social Science Fund of China)

Sun, X. (2024). Harnessing the agential turn in a changing international student mobility landscape. 2024 Conference of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong. The University of Hong Kong, 22-24 Nov. 2024.

Sun, X. (2024). Understanding the trajectorial differences of doctoral career development in changing times: Possible selves as a conceptual lens. 14^th Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference. Adelaide, 17-19 Apr. 2024.

Sun, X. (2021). Understanding doctoral agency manifest in personal, social, and institutional spaces: An ecological approach. Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference 2021. University of Leeds, 14 Oct. 2021.

Sun, X. (2020). ‘I let my heart decide the way’: A narrative inquiry into Chinese young doctoral women constructing and negotiating their doctoral-researcher identity. International Conference on Gender, Language and Education. The Education University of Hong Kong, 2-4 Dec. 2020.

Sun, X. (2019). Delve into the course-based and group-mediated autonomous learning experiences among Chinese university students enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing program: Realities, challenges and possibilities. Inaugural Conference on Language Teaching and Learning: Cognition and Identity. The Education University of Hong Kong, 28-29 Jun. 2019.

Sun, X. (2017). Reflections on a project-based EAP writing course mediated by technology: A holistic perspective from student perceptions. International Conference on ESP, New Technologies and Digital Learning. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 7-9 Dec. 2017.

§ Reviewer of international journals: Studies in Higher Education; Higher Education; Humanities and Social Sciences Communications; Asia Pacific Journal of Education; Cogent Education; Studies in Continuing Education; Frontiers in Education; ECNU Review of Education

§ Reviewer of international conferences: American Educational Research Association 2025 Annual Meeting; Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia 2024 Annual Conference; American Educational Research Association 2024 Annual Meeting; Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia 2022 Annual Conference

2021-2022 Postgraduate Students Publication Award, The Education University of Hong Kong

2020-2021 Postgraduate Students Publication Award, The Education University of Hong Kong

2021 Gold Award of Writing Competition, The Education University of Hong Kong

2019: Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission

2018: Awardee of National Scholarship, The Ministry of Education of P.R.C

2018: Outstanding Social Work Award, East China University of Science and Technology  

2017: 21st Postgraduate Annual Conference Outstanding Paper Award, East China University of Science and Technology

2017: Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, East China University of Science and Technology

2016: Outstanding Graduate of Qingdao University