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Asien-Orient-Institut

Helen Hess

Helen Hess, Dr.

  • Assistentin Sinologie
Raumbezeichnung
ZUB 3-320

Short Biography

2018 – 2023

Ph.D. student in Chinese Studies, University of Zurich,
Thesis title: “Sinophone Balancing Acts: Reclaimed Histories, Spaces, and Ideologies in Contemporary Women-authored Mahua Literature”

2022 (4 months) Visiting Ph.D. student, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia
2016 – 2018 Student Assistant Chinese Studies (Modern China), University of Zurich
2015 – 2018 M.A. in Chinese Studies and Gender Studies, University of Zurich
Thesis: “(De-)Konstruktion weiblicher Subjektpositionen im zeitgenössischen chinesischen Kontext – Eine transmediale Diskursanalyse literarischer und filmischer Werke”
2013 – 2014 Semester abroad General Linguistics and Chinese Studies, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
2011 – 2012 Chinese language program, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning (full scholarship by the China Scholarship Council) and The Central Academy of Drama, Beijing
2010 – 2015 B.A. in Chinese Studies and General Linguistics, University of Zurich

Research Interests

  • Literary and visual culture in contemporary China and the Sinosphere
  • Sinophone Malaysian literature (Mahua wenxue)
  • Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and Europe
  • Gender studies, cultural studies, intermedial approaches

Publications

Hess, Helen and Diyi Mergenthaler. “Virtual Art in Times of Crisis: Curatorial Practices during the Covid-19 Pandemic in China and Malaysia” in edited volume Digital China: Creativity and Community in the Sinocybersphere, edited by Jessica Imbach, Amsterdam University Press. (Forthcoming)

Fan, Pik Wah, Jee Luen Chia, and Helen Hess. 2023. “Tales from Nanyang: Folk Beliefs and Women’s Fate in Lee Yoke Kim’s Fiction.” Forum for World Literature Studies, Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2023, 618–636. https://www.fwls.org/Download/2024/0110/1097.html

Hess, Helen. Conference Report: Wired China: Digital Media and Online Culture. 27.11.2020 – 28.01.2020, digital, in: H-Soz-Kult, 05.02.2021, www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-8870.

Hess, Helen. Book review: “Chan, Shelly: Diaspora’s Homeland. Modern China in the Age of Global Migration. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.” In: Asien: The German Journal of Contemporary Asia, Nr. 152/153 (Juli/Oktober 2019): 156–158.

Grants and Awards

2023 Grant for a self-organized lecture series Other Epistemologies: Remapping the Literary Field in the Sinosphere from the PhF Graduate School, University of Zurich
2022 Grant for a Self-organized Lecture Series Other Epistemologies: Remapping the Literary Field in the Sinosphere from the PhF Graduate School, University of Zurich
2021 GRC Short Grant (UZH) for the Workshop: Queering the Boundaries of the Arts in the Sinosphere
2021 Funding for Self-Organized Working Groups (UZH) for the Workshop: Queering the Boundaries of the Arts in the Sinosphere
2020 “GRC-Grant (UZH) for the Workshop: Wired China: Digital Media and Online Culture
01/01/2020 – 31/12/2022 Doctoral Scholarship by the Janggen-Pöhn-Stiftung
2012 Full Scholarship China Scholarship Council (CSC) for the Chinese language program at Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning, China

Courses Taught

Spring semester 2024 “Methoden der Text- und Kulturanalyse: Vertiefung” (Methods of Text and Cultural Analysis: Advanced), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Spring semester 2024 “Sinophone Artikulationen in Südostasien und Europa: Literatur, Film, Kulturproduktion” (Sinophone articulations in Southeast Asia and Europe: literature, film, cultural production), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Fall semester 2023 “Globale Netzwerke, Migration und Storytelling in der Sinosphäre,” (Global Networks, Migration and Storytelling in the Sinosphere), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich (Co-Teaching with Dr. Brigit Knüsel)
Fall semester 2023 “Methoden der Text- und Kulturanalyse: Einführung” (Methods of Text and Cultural Analysis: Introduction), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Spring semester 2023 “Sinophone and Diaspora Studies: Histories, Literatures, Theories,” BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Fall semester 2022 “Methoden der Text- und Kulturanalyse: Einführung” (Methods of Text and Cultural Analysis: Introduction), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Fall semester 2021 “Methoden der Text- und Kulturanalyse: Einführung” (Methods of Text and Cultural Analysis: Introduction), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Fall semester 2020 “Methoden der Text- und Kulturanalyse: Einführung” (Methods of Text and Cultural Analysis: Introduction), BA course, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
Fall semester 2018 “Sinophone Gemeinschaften in Südostasien” (Sinophone Communities in Southeast Asia), BA/MA lecture, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich

Conferences and Talks

06–07/04/2023 “Narrating Sinophone Diasporic Experiences”, invited talk at the workshop Global Storytelling: Narrating Childhoods in Taiwan, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
09/09/2022 “Longing and Belonging in Contemporary Female-Authored Mahua Literature,” invited talk at the MCRC – Malaysian Chinese Research Centre (马来亚大学马来西亚华人研究中心), University of Malaya, Malaysia
24–28/08/2022 “When Forms Collide – A Formalist Approach to Sinophone Literature,” 24th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies, Olomouc, Czech Republic
24–28/08/2021 “Qu(e)er(y)ing Gender Roles in Singaporean and Malaysian Literature,” 23rd Biennial Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies, Leipzig (online)
14–17/07/2021 “Negotiating Women’s Space – An Intersectional Reading of Female-Authored Sinophone Malaysian Fiction,” 16th Singapore Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies, Asia Research Institute, University of Singapore, online
31/05–01/06/2021 “Spectral Encounters in Sinophone Malaysian Women’s Literature, Film, and Art,” 9. Schweizerische Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asien- und Orientwissenschaften, University of Geneva, online
07, 08, 15/05/2021 “Envisioning Digital Art Spaces in the Contact Zone: (In-)Visibility of Sinophone Malaysian Women Artists During the Covid-19 Crisis,” 10th Conference of the Young Scholars Group of the German Association for Asian Studies (DGA), online conference
27–28/11/2020 “Art Without Borders? Sino-Malaysian Art Spaces in the Age of Digital Culture,” International Online Workshop: Wired China: Digital Media and Online Culture, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
09/09/2020 Co-organization of a session (incl. presentation) on decolonial and intersectional approaches to analysis and evaluation processes, Research retreat: Situating Knowledge, Inter-University Gender Studies Doctoral Program, University of Basel
20/05/2019 “Intersektionale Identitäten, unbehagliche Erinnerungen und quere Visionen in sinophoner malaysischer Kunst,” lecture series Zugänge zur Sinologie, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich
7–9/11/2019 “Contested Territories and Fragile Identities – Memories of the Malayan Emergency in Sinophone Malaysian Fiction,” PhD workshop: Across the Strait – Sinophone Literature from the 19th Century to the Contemporary Ages, Roma Tre University, Rome
16–19/07/2019 “Deconstructing Utopia in (Sinophone) Ma-Hua Cultural Productions,” ICAS 11 (International Convention of Asian Studies), Leiden University
8–11/11/2018 “Haunting Memories and Rewriting History – Representations of the Malayan Emergency in Literature and Visual Art,” PhD workshop: Chinese History after 1949, University of Vienna

Memberships

  • DGA (German Association of Asian Studies): Board member
    https://asienforschung.de/about/vorstand/

  • EACS (European Association of Chinese Studies): Member
  • AAS (Association of Asian Studies): Member
  • SSS (Society of Sinophone Studies): Member