Dr. Ting Luo - Research

Grants:

Principal Investigator, “Fandom Culture and Rhetoric Online: The Self-motivated Nationalism in Authoritarian Regimes”, BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, With Yan Wang (LSE), £9,886, 2021-2023.

Co-Investigator, “From Privacy Structures to Nomadic Subjects: Enacting Everyday Resistance to Digital Surveillance”, With Ai Yu (University of Southampton), Aofei Lv, Southampton Business School Small Research Fund, £3,259.6, Nov 2021 - Nov 2022.

Co-Investigator, “Fandom Nationalism”, LSE Research Infrastructure and Investment Fund, With Yan Wang (LSE), £1,500, Feb-Aug 2021.

Co-investigator, “COVID-19: Understanding Chinese Government Containment Measures and Their Societal Impacts”, UKRI & NIHR, With Jane Duckett (PI), Ana Langer, Holly Snape, Yingru Li, and Yajun Bao, £334,000, 2020-2021.

Post-doctoral Fellow and Project Manager, “Authoritarianism2.0: The Internet, Political Discussion, and Authoritarian Rule in China,” European Research Council Starting Grant, With Daniela Stockmann (PI), €1,500,000, 2014-2019.

Research Projects

Fandom Culture and Rhetoric Online: The Self-motivated Nationalism in Authoritarian Regimes (complete)

This project explores the relationship between fandom and the state in authoritarian regimes where the power distribution is immensely unbalanced and the space for political participation is limited within the political boundaries set by the state. Little has been written on the political agency of fan communities, yet there is ample evidence of fan communities becoming politically mobilized and engaged. This project takes the fandom groups in China as an example and investigates how their agencies—as a group and as individuals—shape their interaction with the state. We have chosen to examine their actions and choices of nationalist activities during a salient threat – the Covid-19 pandemic – when there is an outburst of nationalist discourse due to the threat. This study will shed new lights on contemporary modes of political participation and the role of digital technology in shaping state-society relationships in authoritarian regimes.

This project has received BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (With Yan Wang at LSE), £9,886, 2021-2023.

COVID-19: Understanding Chinese Government Cotainment Measures and Their Societal Impacts (complete)

A joint team led by the University of Glasgow, alongside Manchester Metropolitan University and Peking University conduct research into the Chinese Government’s measures to tackle Covid-19. The Chinese authorities have adopted a wide range of often stringent measures to tackle the Covid-19 epidemic. Our project examines those measures and their societal impacts. The findings should help other governments to develop their own responses to the pandemic which are effective, ethical and humanitarian.

The research, which has received £334,000 from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and will span 18 months, is one of a number of projects being funded by the UK Government to support measures to counter the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Authoritarianism 2.0: The Internet, Political Discussion, and Authoritarian Rule in China” (complete)

I have worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin and Leiden University as part of the European Research Council funded research project “Authoritarianism 2.0: The Internet, Political Discussion, and Authoritarian Rule in China” (Starting Grant, 1.5 million Euro) under the direction of Principal Investigator Professor Daniela Stockmann. Relying on both conventional social science methods and digital methods, the project examines why social media mobilise people to voice opinions and to act both online and offline in the context of authoritarian China. For more information about the ERC-funded research project on social media and political participation in China, please click here. Based on this ERC-funded project, we continue to explore the impact of digital media on political deliberation and participation in China.