Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing

Dr Sheng-hsun Lee

Senior Lecturer
School of Languages and Cultures
Core Member of Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing
Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing
+61 7 336 56382
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Researcher biography

I am a linguist specialising in intercultural and public health communication, with a focus on the intersections of language, culture, and migration in healthcare. My research centres on co-designing accessible health communication resources with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities across Asia and Australia. Drawing on linguistic ethnography and co-design approaches, I work to improve community health, infectious disease prevention, and health equity for underserved populations. I am also passionate about collaborating with colleagues across the health and social sciences to address complex public health challenges, and I convene an interdisciplinary health communication research group at the School.

My publications focus on public health communication. A central aim of these publications is to distill complex health communication data into accessible and actionable strategies that deliver tangible benefits to communities and practitioners. In 2025, I published a single-authored book, Health Crisis Communication: Multimodal Classification for Pandemic Preparedness, which examines effective public health communication and offers practical strategies for communicating complex epidemiological concepts to the public.

I am currently leading and collaborating on three major research projects addressing health communication with vulnerable populations across gender, race, migration, and socioeconomic status. These projects aim to develop tailored communication strategies and resources for conveying critical health information effectively.

  1. I co-create a community health outreach program with Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
  2. I co-lead an international project that examines clinician–patient communication across Australia, Switzerland, and Thailand.
  3. I lead a travel medicine project in Australia that investigates how health professionals communicate infectious disease risks to vulnerable groups, including children, pregnant women, and older adults with underlying health conditions.

My research has been recognised with several awards, including the 2021 Humanities Travelling Fellowship from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the 2025 Young Scholar Research Award from the North America Taiwanese Professors' Association (NATPA), and the 2025 High Distinction Award from the Taiwan Association of Medical History.

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD, MPhil, and Honours students interested in health discourse, intercultural communication, and migration studies. Please feel free to contact me to discuss potential research projects.

Publications

Book (1)
Book Chapters (2)
Journal Articles (13)
Conference Papers (15)

Book

Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2025). Health crisis communication: multimodal classification for pandemic preparedness. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003545002

Book Chapters

Kinginger, Celeste, Wu, Qian and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2018). Chinese language acquisition in study abroad contexts. The Routledge handbook of Chinese second language acquisition. (pp. 301-317) edited by Chuanren Ke. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315670706
Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Kinginger, Celeste (2016). Authenticating practices in Chinese homestay interactions. Authenticity, language and interaction in second language contexts. (pp. 151-176) edited by Rémi A. van Compernolle and Janice McGregor. Bristol, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. doi: 10.21832/9781783095315-009

Journal Articles

Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Crisis classifications in mobility: reporting the first COVID death in Taiwan. Discourse Studies, 26 (2), 242-261. doi: 10.1177/14614456231219741
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2023). How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust. Text and Talk, 44 (6), 809-841. doi: 10.1515/text-2022-0080
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2022). Enregistering mask-wearing in the time of a public health crisis. Language in Society, 52 (3), 1-25. doi: 10.1017/s0047404522000033
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2021). Language program reintegration after study abroad: voices of the teacher and classmates at home. Language and Sociocultural Theory, 7 (1), 60-86. doi: 10.1558/lst.38324
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2020). History in person: a longitudinal study of a language learner’s experience at home and abroad. Applied Linguistics, 42 (4), 692-719. doi: 10.1093/applin/amaa050
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). How memories of study abroad experience are contextualized in the language classroom. Applied Linguistics Review, 13 (4), 1-29. doi: 10.1515/applirev-2019-0020
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). The dialectical unfolding of paradigmatic and narrative thinking in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language classroom. Classroom Discourse, 11 (4), 1-21. doi: 10.1080/19463014.2019.1633550
Kinginger, Celeste and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2019). The dialects of control and connection in the study abroad homestay. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 4 (1), 19-44. doi: 10.1075/sar.17014.kin
Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Kininger, Celeste (2018). Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: a case study of language program reintegration after study abroad. The Modern Language Journal, 102 (3), 578-593. doi: 10.1111/modl.12505
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2017). Developing awareness and use of compliments in the Chinese homestay: a longitudinal case study. Applied Linguistics Review, 8 (4), 441-467. doi: 10.1515/applirev-2016-1003
Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Wu, Qian, Di, Chunyuan and Kinginger, Celeste (2017). Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: two contrasting case studies. Foreign Language Annals, 50 (1), 135-158. doi: 10.1111/flan.12244
Kinginger, Celeste, Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Wu, Qian and Tan, Dali (2016). Contextualized language practices as sites for learning: mealtime talk in short-term Chinese homestays. Applied Linguistics, 37 (5), 716-740. doi: 10.1093/applin/amu061
Kinginger, Celeste, Wu, Qian, Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Tan, Dali (2016). The short-term homestay as a context for language learning: three case studies of high school students and host families. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 1 (1), 34-60. doi: 10.1075/sar.1.1.02kin

Conference Papers

Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Multimodal classification for public health crisis communication. The 4th Conference on Discourse, Culture & Interaction, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 5-6 December 2024.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2024). Reporting the first COVID-19 death: Crisis classification in mobility. Sociolinguistics Symposium 25, Perth, WA Australia, 24-27 June 2024.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2022). How pandemic detective narratives potentiate and debilitate trust. The 9th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 21-23 June 2022.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun, Di, Chunyuan and Kinginger, Celeste (2018). Learning to eat politely at the Chinese homestay dinner table: Two contrasting case studies. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2018 Conference, Chicago, IL United States, 24-27 March 2018.
Kinginger, Celeste and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2018). The dialectics of control and connection in the study abroad homestay. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2018 Conference, Chicago, IL United States, 24-27 March 2018.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2017). Narrative remembering of intercultural encounters: An activity-theoretic study of language program reintegration after study abroad in China. The 19th International Conference and Workshop on TEFL & Applied Linguistics, Taoyuan, China, 10-11 March 2017.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2016). Developing awareness and use of compliments in the Chinese homestay: A longitudinal case study. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2016 Conference, Orlando, FL United States, 9-12 April 2016.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Wu, Qian (2015). Authentic language and culture: Scenes from Chinese homestays. 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, Los Angeles, CA United States, 3-5 April 2015.
Wu, Qian and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2015). Indexicality of directives: Developmental stories of three American high school students in homestays abroad in China. 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics, Los Angeles, CA United States, 3-5 April 2015.
Wu, Qian and Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2014). A taste of language socialization: Talking about food in short-term Chinese home stays. First Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) International Symposium on Chinese Language Teaching and Learning, Bloomington, IN United States, 25-26 October 2014.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun and Wu, Qian (2014). Narrating moral stances in home stays abroad. First Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) International Symposium on Chinese Language Teaching and Learning, Bloomington, IN United States, 25-26 October 2014.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2014). Intertextuality and indexicality in the development of familial intimacy during a short-term home stay abroad.. American Association for Applied Lingusitics (AAAL) 2014 Conference, Portland, OR United States, 22-25 March 2014.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2013). Eating as embodied social practice: Toward Chinese ways of taste. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Orlando, FL United States, 22-24 November 2013.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2013). Language socialization through contextualization cues: Mealtime interactions with a Chinese host family. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2013 Conference, Dallas, TX United States, 16-19 March 2013.
Lee, Sheng-Hsun (2010). Metaphoric competence: A learning strategy for L2 reading comprehension and instruction. Second Asian Conference on Education, Osaka, Japan, 2-5 December 2010.