Lecturer

ALISON SO

BA, MPhil, PhD  CUHK

Office: 10.49, Run Run Shaw Tower
soyamwah@hku.hk

Dr. Alison So is an interdisciplinary Gender Studies scholar in the fields of Cultural Studies, History and Sociology. She holds an MPhil and PhD in Gender Studies (Educational Administration and Policy) from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

RESEARCH

Alison’s doctoral research, Un/healthy Start, delves into the discursive construction and transformation of healthy and ideal students’ bodies in twentieth-century colonial Hong Kong. Her current research project investigates the medicalizing discourses of ice-cream and its relation to the governance of children’s bodies in pre-war Hong Kong.

Research Interests

  • Body Politics
  • Children & Youth Studies
  • Fat Studies
  • Gender and Education
  • Girl Power and Post-feminism
  • Hong Kong
  • Neoliberalism and Globalization
  • Science, Technology and Society (STS)

PUBLICATIONS

Conference Presentations

2024. ‘(Un)Promising Figures?: The Making of Weighty Children’s Bodies in Post-war Hong Kong’. Physical Cultures of the Body Conference. The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA, 11-12  January.

2018. ‘“And the Victim Goes to…?”: The Cyber Witch-hunting in Hong Kong #Metoo’. International Conference on Gender, Sexuality and Justice: Resilience in Uncertain Times, Gender Research Centre & Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. 7 – 8 Dec.

2018. ‘“Honey, We ‘ve Blown Up Hong Kong’s Kids”: Discursive Transformation of Weighty Children’s Bodies in Post-war Hong Kong’. The Value of Children in Asia: Economy, Family and Public Policies, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore. 8 – 9 Nov.

2017. ‘“Weighing” for the Future: The Discursive Construction of Scientific Motherhood in Hong Kong Children’s Health Contest (1960-1970)’. Corpus Historicus: The Body In/Of History Conference, University of Silesia, Sosnowiec, Poland, 30 Jun.

Knowledge Exchange And Public Engagement

Programme Instructor, ‘To Gender Infinity and Beyond’, HKU Summer Institute, Jul – Aug 2022 & Jul – Aug 2023.

Programme Instructor, Peace Winds Junior Global Citizens Summer Camp, Peace Winds Japan, Hiroshima, 24 – 30 Jul 2018 & 31 Jul – 4 Aug 2019

Guest Speaker, ‘Gender Sensitivity and Education’, Annual Gender Role Workshop, Gender Research Centre, Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, 1 Jun 2013.

Guest Speaker, ‘“Successful Girls?”: Implementing Gender Equity Education through Everyday Practice in Schools’, City University Press Book Talk, 2013 Hong Kong Book Fair, 21 Jul 2012

TEACHING AND COURSES TAUGHT

  • HIST2158 Women in Hong Kong history: Private Lives and Public Voices
  • HIST7014 Gender and Sexuality in Hong Kong (MA)
  • HIST7017 Education in Hong Kong History (MA)
  • CCHU9002 Battles for Bodies: The Birth of Surveillance Society