President's Awards

Individual Award
(Research Excellence Award)

Dr Michelle GU Ming-yue
谷明月博士
Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies) of the Faculty of Humanities,
Head and Associate Professor in the Department of English Language Education

Dr GU Ming Yue, Michelle, is a well-established researcher in sociolinguistics and has engaged in interdisciplinary intellectual scholarship in identity and citizenship studies, multilingualism and mobility, minority education, and EMI in higher education. Her research integrates theories and methods from sociolinguistics, critical inquiry and discourse studies. She has developed widely cited theoretical frameworks, and made important international contributions to, and advanced the theoretical development of, language identity, the experience of ethnic minorities in educational settings, and discourse on internationalism in higher education.

Over the past three years, Dr Gu implemented and completed three external research grants as PI, including one General Research Fund (GRF) grant, one PICO-Funded Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme (Special Round) grant, and one Research and Development Project for a SCOLAR grant. Dr Gu’s PPR study generated a comprehensive report with detailed implications for policymaking about values education, intercultural citizenship education, and ethical-self formation in higher education.

Dr Gu’s publications have consistently appeared in high-impact international refereed journals, such as Applied Linguistics, the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language Teaching Research and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Over the past three years, Dr Gu has published 26 journal articles and one book chapter, and delivered 12 plenary or featured speeches and invited talks hosted by conferences and universities.

Dr Gu is devoted to professional service, and has contributed to research and society with her expertise. She is currently a co-editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Bloomsbury Publishing’s book series Critical Perspectives on Language, Mobility, and International Education. Dr Gu joined a voluntary mentoring service in academic publishing, supporting scholars from off-networked contexts by providing feedback on their manuscripts.

As Head of the university's ELE Department and Associate Dean (R&PS) of FHM, Dr Gu has shown her commitment to engaging in collegial research, resulting in a significant rise in the department's research output. Dr Gu has also been active in fostering joint endeavours between the university and external institutions, including co-organising the Knowledge Transfer forums and the Public Lecture Series and chairing the 2nd International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning.