Hsun-Yu (Sharon) Chuang

Dr. Chuang earned her PhD in intercultural/international communication and interpersonal communication from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her teaching and research interests are particularly drawn to the intersectionality of culture, communication, identity, language, pedagogy, East Asian Studies and Taiwan Studies. Largely, she has been exploring topics such as identity politics in the U.S. American educational contexts, international relations among the Far-East Asian nations (Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), and language politics (globalizing whiteness) in Taiwanese educational contexts.

Her teacher identity is inseparable from her scholarship. She has taught and developed four courses at Denison thus far. While the foci differ from each other in these courses, she employs global perspectives as well as engaging in student-centered teaching with various experiential activities and alternative pedagogies. In her classes, she constantly engages with students in developing critical thinking skills and self-reflexivity in examining the communicative choices that we make in today’s increasingly complex and multicultural society. Through discussions, she aims at setting up caring, compassionate, and respectful class communities, where class members collaboratively dialogue, examine, and analyze the use of communication and what is often take for granted in various contexts.

Her research and teaching experiences have shaped her into a pedagogue and scholar with intercultural and international sensitivity who enjoys learning with students in respecting differences and in promoting diversity and equity.