Staff profile

Echo Linghua Cai is a PhD researcher in the School of Education at Durham University, supervised by Dr William Yat Wai Lo and Dr Maria Antonia Manresa. Her doctoral research focuses on the intercultural journeys experienced by Chinese international students undertaking Chinese Studies courses in UK universities, with a special focus on their interculturality and identity. 

Echo holds two Master degrees. Her first MA degree was from Fudan University in China, major in Chinese Classic Literature. Her dissertation explored a well known poet in Song Dynasty and achieved distinction in the end. Echo obtained her second MA degree, with distinction as well, in School of Education at Durham University in 2019, specialising in Intercultural Communication and Education. With the interest in the influence of Information Technology on Education, she did an empirical research on several online reading clubs in China, and her dissertation, To what extent and how can online reading clubs benefit English learners in China? Power and Limitation, also achieved distinction.

Currently, Echo is conducting an interdisciplinary research as her doctoral study, combining Chinese Studies and Intercultural Communication and Education. The provisional title of her thesis is Sense and Sensibility: Intercultural Journeys of Chinese International Students undertaking Chinese Studies in UK Universities. 

• China Studies
• Intercultural Communication
• International Students