Skip to menu Skip to content Skip to footer
Dr Sheng-hsun Lee
Dr

Sheng-hsun Lee

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 336 56382

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

Qualifications

  • Masters (Coursework), Pennsylvania State University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University

Research interests

  • 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.

  • Intercultural communication during study abroad

  • Language learning inside and outside classroom settings

Works

Search Professor Sheng-hsun Lee’s works on UQ eSpace

31 works between 2010 and 2025

1 - 20 of 31 works

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

Health crisis communication: multimodal classification for pandemic preparedness

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.

Multimodal classification for public health crisis communication

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.

Reporting the first COVID-19 death: Crisis classification in mobility

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

Crisis classifications in mobility: reporting the first COVID death in Taiwan

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

How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust

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.

How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust

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

Enregistering mask-wearing in the time of a public health crisis

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

Language program reintegration after study abroad: voices of the teacher and classmates at home

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

History in person: a longitudinal study of a language learner’s experience at home and abroad

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

How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom

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

The dialectical unfolding of paradigmatic and narrative thinking in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language classroom

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

The dialects of control and connection in the study abroad homestay

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

Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: a case study of language program reintegration after study abroad

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.

Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: Two contrasting case studies

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.

The dialectics of control and connection in the study abroad homestay

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

Chinese language acquisition in study abroad contexts

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

Developing awareness and use of compliments in the Chinese homestay: a longitudinal case study

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.

Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: An activity-theoretic study of language program reintegration after study abroad in China

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

Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: two contrasting case studies

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

Contextualized language practices as sites for learning: mealtime talk in short-term Chinese homestays

Supervision

Availability

Dr Sheng-hsun Lee is:
Available for supervision

Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.

Supervision history

Completed supervision

Media

Enquiries

For media enquiries about Dr Sheng-hsun Lee's areas of expertise, story ideas and help finding experts, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au