Graduate Research Symposium 2025

We are pleased to invite all Kellogg College members to participate in the upcoming Graduate Research Symposium, which will be held on 6th June from 3:00 to 4:30 pm in the Mawby Room.

This year’s theme is “Building Resilience: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Challenges.”

The symposium aims to bring together research from social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences to foster rich discussions and collaborative insights.

This is a fantastic opportunity for Kellogg students to share recent research, receive feedback, and connect with connect with each other in an interdisciplinary, academic environment.

Please contact the MCR Academic Officer, Cynthia Cheng, with any questions.

Tea, coffee and cake will be available from 3pm.

No booking required.

Student presenters:

Krystal (Zhongyu) Wang (DPhil in Education)

African Perspectives on China-Africa Higher Education Cooperation: A Case Study of Tanzanian and South African Universities

This research examines China-Africa higher education cooperation, with critical attention to the notions of “mutuality” and “equality” that are often emphasized to distinguish China’s approach from traditional development aid models. While China’s strategic agenda has been widely discussed, this study seeks to understand the role of African actors in shaping China-Africa university partnerships. Focusing on individual agency, it explores how African academics engage in knowledge co-production and exchange with Chinese colleagues, and how their engagement might make mutual learning and equal partnership possible. This qualitative case study involves ethnographic interviews and critical discourse analysis as the key methods. Fieldwork will take place at two African universities: the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and the University of Johannesburg (South Africa).

Emily Fowler (MSc Social Science of the Internet)

Online child safety

Despite online child safety’s prominence in internet governance work, conceptualizations of successful safety measures vary across interest groups, companies, and lawmakers. From age verification technology to content control, sexual exploitation detection to behavioral management, child safety means a lot of different things to a lot of different stakeholders. Due to the UK’s Online Safety Act risk assessment period, these three stakeholder groups are actively negotiating what constitutes meaningful child safety—a novel consultative process that uniquely fosters collaborative governing for digital spaces.
I seek to reconcile the differing online safety definitions within civil society, policymakers, and industry practitioners by using qualitative interviewing with participants from each area. Building upon literature on triangular platform governance and techno-legal solutionism, I explain how regulation fails to adequately consider mid-sized platforms and emerging technology to govern the entire digital ecosystem appropriately. Additionally, governing efforts perpetuate norms of paternalistic interventionism for child safety, preventing rights-based approaches desired by adolescent internet users and interest groups. Insular governing results in lopsided regulation, harming the digital ecosystem and driving users to unsafe cyberspaces where they are more at risk. Ultimately, without sustainable and meaningful collaborative governance, online safety efforts will prove ineffective and harm adolescent users in the long run.

Shannon Hong (MBA)

Chinese AI Capacity Building in the Global South

What is China’s AI Capacity Building Initiative in the Global South?

Ally Houston (DPhil in Psychiatry)

Ketogenic diet for ADHD and depression

There is a global rapid increase in Attention‑deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and accompanying depression. Not only are there well documented and sometimes severe side-effects of psychiatric medication, there are also worldwide rolling shortages in ADHD medication. A substantial minority do not want – or do not respond to – these approaches.

The Food in ADHD and Depression (FAD) trial will test whether 16 weeks of structured dietary change, delivered with twice‑weekly remote coaching, can improve ADHD and depression symptoms better than an alternative evidence‑based dietary programme.

Sharvi MaheshwarI (DPhil in Theology and Religion)

Rituals in Flux: Cultural Resilience and the Politics of Continuity in Bhaktapur

This paper explores how ritual systems develop resilience in the face of cultural, spatial, and ideological pressures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Bhaktapur, Nepal, I introduce a model—The Codes—to explain how local goddess traditions negotiate.

Krystal (Zhongyu) Wang (DPhil in Education)

African Perspectives on China-Africa Higher Education Cooperation: A Case Study of Tanzanian and South African Universities

This research examines China-Africa higher education cooperation, with critical attention to the notions of “mutuality” and “equality” that are often emphasized to distinguish China’s approach from traditional development aid models. While China’s strategic agenda has been widely discussed, this study seeks to understand the role of African actors in shaping China-Africa university partnerships. Focusing on individual agency, it explores how African academics engage in knowledge co-production and exchange with Chinese colleagues, and how their engagement might make mutual learning and equal partnership possible. This qualitative case study involves ethnographic interviews and critical discourse analysis as the key methods. Fieldwork will take place at two African universities: the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and the University of Johannesburg (South Africa).

Merideth Cazalas (MSc in Education (Research Design and Methodology))

The Interdisciplinary Impacts of Intercultural Contact in Higher Education Programs

The aim of this research is to better understand the various variables that can influence an international and domestic student’s favorability and confidence in their host county in relation to their intercultural contact. Applying a psychological theory known as intergroup contact theory as an analytical framework, this research examines students’ experiences interacting with international and domestic students on campus and other contextual factors that may impact their perception of their host country, the UK. In this research, a survey participant’s favorability and confidence towards the UK will be analyzed using a multivariate study against various variables to determine what factors have the strongest association to changes in perception towards the UK. This is to better understand the macro level impact of international higher education programs and its functionality as a form of soft power in international relations.

Yici TANG（Fortuna TANG）(MSc in Education)

Employability and Employment Quality: An Empirical Study of Chinese Female Graduates from Domestic and UK Universities

This research explores how employability influences employment quality among Chinese female master’s graduates from UK and domestic universities, with particular attention to career development across key life stages. Drawing on the concept of identity capital—which encompasses confidence, communication skills, adaptability, and social support—the study examines how women navigate career decisions when facing transitions such as further education, marriage, or motherhood. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research compares how different educational systems shape graduates’ employability profiles and the ways they apply these strengths in diverse job markets. By highlighting individual career strategies and life-course planning, the study offers insight into how higher education can better equip female students for sustainable, fulfilling careers. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of how career choices are made not only based on qualifications, but also personal values, family considerations, and long-term aspirations.

Shreya Mary John (MSc in Economic and Social History)

Beyond ‘Transience’: Religious Networks in Temporary Migration from Kerala to the Persian Gulf since 1970s

Kerala’s post-independence growth strategy of high social development at low economic growth has been the focal point of academic and political debates. Popularly labelled as the ‘Kerala model,’ most scholars allude to public action as the key factor at play. However, my dissertation broadens this narrative by suggesting an alternative factor that has been in place for centuries yet systematically overlooked – the Kerala migration to the Persian Gulf since the 1960s. Migration to the Gulf dons a novel structure of transience relative to migration elsewhere. This temporality transcends not just the nature of the Gulf migration but also in terms of the existing literature. To understand the less-explored intricacies and nuances within this niche migratory pattern, I employ the Kerala Migration Survey to understand the larger socio-economic consequences of the ‘Kerala model.’ Beyond the normative framework, my research questions the impact of religious networks in securing job opportunities, reducing migration costs, and sending remittances back home.

Jeanie Beesley (DPhil in English Local History)

From Windrush to Windrush: The Exploration and documentation of the history of Oxford’s Windrush Generation (1939-1986)

This DPhil presents a scholarly history of Oxford’s Windrush Generation, conveyed through oral testimonies of 53 participants. These include seven “elders” now in their eighties, alongside “Windrush children”—primarily in their 60s and 70s—comprising both settlers from the British West Indies, invited by the UK government, and individuals born in Oxford to Caribbean parents. Spanning the period from 1939 to 1986, the research employs oral history methodology, combining life-story interviews with archival inquiry to recover overlooked narratives and centre the lived experiences of Oxford’s Caribbean community within the historical record.

In collaboration with the Oxfordshire History Centre, both the audio recordings and the completed thesis will be archived to ensure long-term public and scholarly access. This project not only preserves an essential yet under-documented aspect of local and national history, but also lays critical groundwork for future research into the contributions and legacies of Caribbean people in post-war Britain.

Open to: Members of Kellogg College,