
Overview
Background
I am an applied linguist specializing in intercultural and public health communication. I am deeply engaged in using multimodal discourse analysis to understand how language, gestures, eye gaze, and material objects co-create meaning in social life. Previously, I investigated the processes of language and cultural learning while studying abroad or in classroom settings.
My recent work focuses on communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have published in top-tier international journals on public health topics, including mask wearing as well as reporting and narrating pandemic events. My COVID-19 project draws on over 600 hours of press-conference recordings and more than two million public online comments to understand what worked and did not in public health crisis communication. The project received the 2021 Humanities Traveling Fellowship from the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2025, I published a research monograph, Health crisis communication: Multimodal classification for pandemicpreparedness. The book explores multimodal classification’s role in promoting pandemic preparedness and offers a list of ready-to-use strategies for explaining pandemic categories to public audiences.
My new project explores the communication of food safety crises, such as the mushroom poisoning in Australia and the rice-noodle poisoning in Taiwan. I am writing my second monograph titled Numbers talk in health crisis discourse. The book will show how during public health emergencies, such as a mass food-poisoning incident, public health professionals used communication to infuse statistics with qualitative meanings. Through talk about numbers, the professionals shape social perception of and response to a health emergency. I aim to use my research to help health professionals effectively communicate public health and update health communication guidelines.
I am available to supervise PhD/MPhil/Honours projects on the following topics: health discourses, intercultural communication, and language learning and teaching. Please contact me to discuss your proposal.
Availability
- Dr Sheng-hsun Lee is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Masters (Coursework), Pennsylvania State University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University
Research interests
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Public health crisis communication
This project seeks to uncover features of effective communication used by public health officials. These features often include a constellation of language, gestures, placards, and eye gaze to help the public understand pandemic circumstances. The project started with a travel fellowship support from the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2021 to collect the videos of COVID-19 press conferences in Australia and Taiwan. Over the years, my research assistants and I have created a video corpus of COVID-19 press conferences. We have been analyzing the videos to understand the successes and challenges encountered by public health officials in communicating about public health issues. The project has three aims. First, the project will expand the current focus on communication content in crisis communication by showing how language, gestures, placards, and eye gaze co-weave public health messages. Secondly, the project will holistically present how health crisis information is produced, circulated, and received. Finally, the project will draw on concrete, real-life examples to provide ready-to-use strategies for policymakers to communicate crisis management and health professionals to practice effective communication.
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Intercultural communication during study abroad
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Language learning inside and outside classroom settings
Works
Search Professor Sheng-hsun Lee’s works on UQ eSpace
2025
Book
Health crisis communication: multimodal classification for pandemic preparedness
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2025). Health crisis communication: multimodal classification for pandemic preparedness. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003545002
2024
Conference Publication
Multimodal classification for public health crisis communication
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Multimodal classification for public health crisis communication. The 4th Conference on Discourse, Culture & Interaction, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 5-6 December 2024.
2024
Conference Publication
Reporting the first COVID-19 death: Crisis classification in mobility
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Reporting the first COVID-19 death: Crisis classification in mobility. Sociolinguistics Symposium 25, Perth, WA Australia, 24-27 June 2024.
2024
Journal Article
Crisis classifications in mobility: reporting the first COVID death in Taiwan
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Crisis classifications in mobility: reporting the first COVID death in Taiwan. Discourse Studies, 26 (2), 242-261. doi: 10.1177/14614456231219741
2023
Journal Article
How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2023). How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust. Text and Talk, 44 (6), 809-841. doi: 10.1515/text-2022-0080
2022
Conference Publication
How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2022). How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust. The 9th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 21-23 June 2022.
2022
Journal Article
Enregistering mask-wearing in the time of a public health crisis
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2022). Enregistering mask-wearing in the time of a public health crisis. Language in Society, 52 (3), 1-25. doi: 10.1017/s0047404522000033
2021
Journal Article
Language program reintegration after study abroad: voices of the teacher and classmates at home
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2021). Language program reintegration after study abroad: voices of the teacher and classmates at home. Language and Sociocultural Theory, 7 (1), 60-86. doi: 10.1558/lst.38324
2020
Journal Article
History in person: a longitudinal study of a language learner’s experience at home and abroad
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2020). History in person: a longitudinal study of a language learner’s experience at home and abroad. Applied Linguistics, 42 (4), 692-719. doi: 10.1093/applin/amaa050
2019
Journal Article
How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom. Applied Linguistics Review, 13 (4), 1-29. doi: 10.1515/applirev-2019-0020
2019
Journal Article
The dialectical unfolding of paradigmatic and narrative thinking in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language classroom
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). The dialectical unfolding of paradigmatic and narrative thinking in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language classroom. Classroom Discourse, 11 (4), 1-21. doi: 10.1080/19463014.2019.1633550
2019
Journal Article
The dialects of control and connection in the study abroad homestay
Kinginger, Celeste and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). The dialects of control and connection in the study abroad homestay. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 4 (1), 19-44. doi: 10.1075/sar.17014.kin
2018
Journal Article
Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: a case study of language program reintegration after study abroad
Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Kininger, Celeste (2018). Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: a case study of language program reintegration after study abroad. The Modern Language Journal, 102 (3), 578-593. doi: 10.1111/modl.12505
2018
Conference Publication
Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: Two contrasting case studies
Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Di, Chunyuan and Kinginger, Celeste (2018). Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: Two contrasting case studies. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2018 Conference, Chicago, IL United States, 24-27 March 2018.
2018
Conference Publication
The dialectics of control and connection in the study abroad homestay
Kinginger, Celeste and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2018). The dialectics of control and connection in the study abroad homestay. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2018 Conference, Chicago, IL United States, 24-27 March 2018.
2018
Book Chapter
Chinese language acquisition in study abroad contexts
Kinginger, Celeste, Wu, Qian and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2018). Chinese language acquisition in study abroad contexts. The Routledge handbook of Chinese second language acquisition. (pp. 301-317) edited by Chuanren Ke. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315670706
2017
Journal Article
Developing awareness and use of compliments in the Chinese homestay: a longitudinal case study
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2017). Developing awareness and use of compliments in the Chinese homestay: a longitudinal case study. Applied Linguistics Review, 8 (4), 441-467. doi: 10.1515/applirev-2016-1003
2017
Conference Publication
Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: An activity-theoretic study of language program reintegration after study abroad in China
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2017). Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: An activity-theoretic study of language program reintegration after study abroad in China. The 19th International Conference and Workshop on TEFL & Applied Linguistics, Taoyuan, China, 10-11 March 2017.
2017
Journal Article
Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: two contrasting case studies
Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Wu, Qian, Di, Chunyuan and Kinginger, Celeste (2017). Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: two contrasting case studies. Foreign Language Annals, 50 (1), 135-158. doi: 10.1111/flan.12244
2016
Journal Article
Contextualized language practices as sites for learning: mealtime talk in short-term Chinese homestays
Kinginger, Celeste, Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Wu, Qian and Tan, Dali (2016). Contextualized language practices as sites for learning: mealtime talk in short-term Chinese homestays. Applied Linguistics, 37 (5), 716-740. doi: 10.1093/applin/amu061
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Sheng-hsun Lee is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
A Case Study of Collaborative Writing for L2 English Learners
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Noriko Iwashita
Media
Enquiries
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