People

Meet Our Team

Research Interests

Everyday life, social suffering, uncertainty and danger, health and wellbeing including mental health, care, disasters and natural hazards, humanitarian affairs, traditional knowledge systems, and sustainable development.

Janaka Jayawickrama (born July 05, 1974) is a social anthropologist. Trained in India, the USA, and UK in psychology, psychotherapy, and social anthropology, Janaka has been working in and on crisis-affected societies since 1994. He has conducted research and various educational activities in Asia, Africa, North America, Europe, and the Middle East (or West Asia) in collaboration with the United Nations, humanitarian and development agencies, and affected communities.

Janaka is distinguished professor of social anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, and Director of the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing at Shanghai University China. He holds honorary positions at Department of Sociology, University of York, UK; University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka; University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh; and Urban and Environmental Studies University Research Centre at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China. He was formerly faculty member of Northumbria University, and University of York UK (2004 – 2023).

Janaka’s research covers a range of fields. He is passionately interested in the question of how lived experiences through crises generate concepts; how we might examine philosophical traditions from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East as generative of theoretical and practical approaches to facilitate wellbeing; how to reduce the gap between human beings and nature; and how the impact of historical processes and events on the present day are joined together in the making of the critical. His work on wellbeing, inclusivity, and the need for harmonious relationship with nature has appeared in many anthologies.

Janaka has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in which he collaborates with students to take them through major concepts (health and wellbeing, disasters, development, networks, relations, ethics, etc) embedded in sociological, geographical, political, and historical texts. Janaka has taught courses on Research Methods, Humanitarianism, Sustainable Development, Disaster Risk Reduction, Society and Space, Global Public Health, and Conflict Analysis. Janaka has supervised and mentored more than 20 PhD and postdoctoral students and more than 200 postgraduate students.

Janaka is personally interested in Yoga, meditation, Chinese martial arts, music, arts, creative literature, and movies.

Publication

Jayawickrama, J., Chakraborty, A., and Zhang, Y., (2025), Climate Change, Population Health, and Island States: Socio-Cultural Dimensions, London: Routledge (forthcoming).

Chakraborty, A., Jayawickrama, J., and Zhang, Y., (2024), A Brief Social History of Tuberculosis: Key Challenges to Global Health, London: Routledge (2024).

Jayawickrama, J., and Wright, J., (2025), Under the Gaze of Global Mental Health: A Critical Reflection on Experiences from Malawi, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom, London: Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming).

Jayawickrama, J., and Madhanagopal, D., (2025), Reintroducing Nature into Health and Wellbeing: Learnings from Ancient South Asia, Singapore: Springer Nature (forthcoming).

Jayawickrama, J., (2024), Understanding the Concept of Ahimsa in a Violently Divided Society: A Historical and Personal Account of Sri Lanka during Conflict Times, Gandhi Marg: A Quarterly Research Journal, Special Issue (forthcoming).

Jayawickrama, J., (2023), “Those Who Make an Enemy of the Earth Make an Enemy of Themselves”: Climate Change and Human Activities from a South and Southeast Asian Perspective. In Madhanagopal, D. and Momtaz, S. eds (eds), Climate Change and Risk in South and Southeast Asia: Socio-political Perspectives. New York: Routledge.

Wright, J. and Jayawickrama, J., (2021), We Need Other Human Beings in Order to be Human: Examining the Indigenous Philosophy of Umunthu and Strengthening Mental Health Interventions, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, (45), 1-16.

Jordan, L., and Jayawickrama, J., (2019), Where is the Care in Care? A Polemic on Medicalisation of Health and Humanitarianism, Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 6(2), 1-17.

Jayawickrama, J., (2018), If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together: Outsiders learning from insiders in a humanitarian context, Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 5(2), 1-20.

Jayawickrama, J., (2013), If they can’t do good, they should not come: Ethics of evaluating research in violently divided societies, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, 8(2), pp.26-41.

Jayawickrama, J., (2009), Ethical Thinking: International Mental Health Activities and Communities, Summer Issue, Fourth World Journal, 8(1), 6-18.

Jayawickrama, J., (2007), Concepts of Care: A Workbook for Community Practitioners: United Nations Refugee Agency and Disaster and Development Centre (A UNHCR Publication).

Research Interests

Yun Xia is Professor of History at the College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, PRC. Prof. Xia graduated from Beijing University with double majors in History and Economics, and received her MA and PhD degrees in History from the University of Oregon. Before joining the Department of History at Shanghai University, she taught at Seattle University, WA, and Valparaiso University, IN, and became tenured Associate Professor in History and International Studies at Valparaiso University in 2018.

Prof. Xia specializes in the history of law and society in modern China, and has taken an interest in history of medicine in recent years. She is the author of Down with Traitors: Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China (University of Washington Press, 2017), co-editor of The History of the Shanghai Jews (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, with Kevin Ostoyich) and editor of Compendium of Chinese Medical Wisdom (Zhengzhou: Henan Keji Chubanshe, 2015). Her articles have appeared on the Nationalities Papers, Journal of Women’s History, Modern Asian Studies and a number of edited volumes. She is currently working on a book project that examines the history of Chinese medicated liquor in the twentieth century and a textbook entitled Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Culture (under contract with Shanghai University Press).

Publication

Book Manuscript:

Down with Traitors: Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.

Edited Volumes:

Yun Xia. ed. Lunxuanqu yu weizheng quan (Occupied China and Collaborationist Regimes) Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe.

Yun Xia & Kevin Ostoyich, eds. The History of the Shanghai Jews: New Pathways of Research. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.

Yun Xia, ed. Compendium of Wisdom from Chinese Medical Classics. The Condensed Version. Zhengzhou: Henan keji chubanshe, 2019.

Yun Xia, ed. Compendium of Wisdom from Chinese Medical Classics. Four Volumes. Zhengzhou: Henan keji chubanshe, 2019.

Forthcoming: Yun Xia & Weiting Guo. Subversive Taiwan: Subversive Taiwan:Violence, Community, and Social Order in Historical Context.

Textbook In Progress:

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Culture (Under Contract with Shanghai University Press).

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters:

2024. “Mediating Collaborationism: Asianism, Cosmopolitanism and the Recounting of History.” Modern Asian Studies (SSCI Journal) 1 (2024), 1-10；

“Simultaneously ‘National Medicine’ and ‘East Asian Medicine:’ A Cross-boundary Network of Medical Exchange in Wartime East Asia.” Modern Asian Studies (SSCI Journal) 1 (2024), 75-101.

Co-authored with Yidan Zhu. “Crossing Boundaries through Collaborative Online International Learning during Covid-19: A Partipatory Case Study in China.” Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education 3(2023), 98-108.

Traitor in Limbo: Chinese Trials of White Russian Spies: 1937-1948. Forthcoming with Nationalities Papers. Nationalities Papers (SSCI Journal), 48: 6, 1096-1112.

“Engendering Contempt for Collaborators: Anti-Hanjian Discourse Following the Sino-

Japanese War of 1937-1945.” Journal of Women’s History (SSCI Journal) 25, 111-134.

“Resolutions on Preventing Hanjian Activities and Espionage.” In Jonathan Henshaw,

Craig Smith and Norman Smith, eds. Translating the Occupation: The Japanese Invasion of China, 1931-45, 412-420. University of British Columbia Press.

“Punishing Han Traitors beyond Chinese Borders,” in Barak Kushner, Sherzod

Muminov and Andrew Levidis, eds. In the Ruins of the Japanese Empire: Imperial Violence, State Destruction, and the Reordering of Modern East Asia, 51-75. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

“Taipei and Tokyo: Turf Wars and Taiwanese Identity,” in Aaron Magnan-Park, Gina

Marchetti and Tan See-kam, eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema, 391-408. Palgrave Macmillan.

“Dianying zhong de Dongya youzuzhi fanzui” (Asian Organized Crime as Seen in Films)

Academic Perspective 12, 115-120.

Research Interests

Arnab was trained as historian of health, medicine, and diseases but has since expanded his interest areas further to health policy studies, global, and planetary health. He is currently working on a couple of main projects – one is a book project on his PhD research and the other is on Tuberculosis control and prevention measures in the Western Pacific region – specifically Fiji and the Philippines.

His current research lies at the intersection of health policies, migration studies, and the history of medicine in non-western countries.

Alongside, he is also currently associated with multiple projects as part of the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing on planetary health, climate change, and understanding gender issues in disaster areas. Arnab joined Shanghai University as a post-doctoral fellow, and after completing his fellowship now continues to be part of the department as a faculty member.

He has been associated with a leading journal Medical History, published by the Cambridge University Press as their Assistant Editor since 2019.

Research Supervision

Arnab is open to discussing research proposals for postgraduate study on a variety of subjects related to his research expertise.

Research Interests and Expertise

History of Medicine in South and Southeast Asia

19th and 20th Centuries history of Empires and health

History of Science and Technologies

Climate change, planetary health, and health policies

Publication

Chakraborty, Arnab. “Negotiating Medical Services in the Madras Presidency: The Subordinate

Perspectives (1882–1935).” Medical History 65, no. 3 (2021): 247–66.

“A Brief Social History of Tuberculosis: Key Challenges to Global Health”, Ed. Arnab Chakraborty, Janaka Jayawickrama, Yong-an Zhang (Routledge, October 2024)

“Climate Change, Population Health and Island States: Socio-Cultural Dimensions”. Ed. Janaka Jayawickrama, Arnab Chakraborty, Yong-an Zhang (Routledge, forthcoming March 2025)

Research Interests

Gu Yue is a lecturer in the Department of History of Shanghai University. Bachelor of History from Northeastern University (NEU) in the United States, Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

The main research direction is women/gender history, medical social history and emotional history in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During my doctoral period, I was funded by the Hong Kong Graduate Full Scholarship (PGS). Invited to the first academic annual conference of medical social history of the Chinese Society of Social History, the annual meeting of North American Emotional History (NACHE), the annual meeting of the East Asian Research Society in New York (NYCAS), the annual meeting of the Australian Society of Chinese Studies (CSAA), the international academic seminar of the Institute of Recent History in Taiwan, and the University of Hong Kong “Research on Chinese Sex and Gender Several Chinese-English conference papers were published at the Roundtable and other conferences.

Publication

“Family, Emotion and Identity Confrontation: Female Patients in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the Analysis Mode of Disease and Pain”, History Teaching (Second Half of the Month), Issue 2, 2022, pages 20-28. (CSSCI, reprinted in full text of the copy materials of the People’s Congress newspapers and periodicals)

2. “Professional Women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Focusing on the Dission of the Identity of a Stable Woman”, “Women’s Research Series”, Issue 4, 2021, pages 113-122. (CSSCI)

Women’s Medical Selection Under the Leadership of Male Relations Network in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Women’s Research Series, No. 3, 2020, pages 121-128. (CSSCI)

4. “Ming and Qing Dynasties Novels and Medical Cases in the Image of a Stable Woman”, “Tradical Chinese Medicine Culture”, 2019, No. 1, pages 46-54.

PROFESSIONAL TEAM

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About Us

As a research and academic institution, the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing is uniquely positioned to serve as a “creative thinking hub” to support governments, UN agencies, community groups, and individuals in converting and sharing ideas for a better future.