Prior to joining EdUHK in 2018, Professor Michelle Gu Mingyue was Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 2012 to 2017. As a researcher in sociolinguistics, Professor Gu adopts multi-disciplinary approaches to explore the individual-context interplay mediated by languages and semiotics. Her research integrates theories and methods from sociolinguistics, critical inquiry, discourse studies and psychology. She has theorised the concept of Digital Trans-literacies to understand identity exploration and self-concept clarity among youths in a digital world; and has developed theoretical frameworks to advance the areas of language and identity, multilingualism and mobility, family language policy, and the interaction between language, culture and ethnicity.

Professor Gu is a prolific scholar with many publications in top academic journals in the fields of linguistics and languages. She is an active researcher with a strong record in securing external research grants such as the General Research Grant (5 as PI; 7 as co-I), PICO-Funded Public Policy Research (1 as PI; 3 as co-I), and the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (research and development) projects (2 as PI; 1 as co-I). She has worked on two World University Network projects and collaborated extensively with scholars across the world.

Professor Gu received the President’s Award in Individual Research Excellence in 2022 at EdUHK, the Research Excellence Award in 2017 and the Young Researcher Award in 2015 at CUHK. She is the elected Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Humanities. She is also listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists by Stanford University.