I am an intellectual and social historian, with particular interests in progressive thought and social reform in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. I have written on Oxford Idealism and the emergence of the ‘New Liberalism’, Idealist philosophy and the university adult education movement, the tension between the ideal of participatory democracy and professionalism, etc.
More recently, my research has broadened to explore the evolution and impacts of Anglophone progressivist thought on a global scale. I am currently working on three interrelated projects: first, the British left’s admiration for Chinese culture and discourses on China’s modernisation between 1900 and 1960; second, the approach taken by British liberal internationalists in handling the Manchurian crisis; third, Cold-war liberalism and its implications on the study of intellectual history in post-war Taiwan.
My works have appeared in Modern Intellectual History, Global Intellectual History, and History of Education. Before taking up my current position at IHP in 2021, I was an assistant professor at the National Taiwan Normal University, where I continue to give undergraduate lectures and seminar courses.
