Shuhua Chen

Dr. Shuhua Chen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She is also an associate at the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Dr. Chen is currently leading research within the ERC-funded five-year project 'A Middle Way? Probing Sufficiency through Meat and Milk in China' (MidWay), which investigates sustainable consumption practices in China.

Dr. Chen holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews (2018). Her academic journey includes a postdoctoral position at NTNU (2020-2022) focusing on temporalities of home-in-movement, and prior to that, she worked as a research fellow at the University of Birmingham on the EU Horizon 2020 project AGRUMIG. She has also taught at the University of St Andrews and was a visiting scholar at the University at Buffalo with the Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund.

• PhD in Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews, UK (2018)
• Visiting Scholar, University at Buffalo, US (2018-2019)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU (2020-2022)
• Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, UK (2019-2020)

Dr. Chen's research spans multiple interconnected areas including the anthropology of food and climate change, migration and home studies, cosmopolitanism, and sustainable sufficiency. Her work often employs phenomenological and multispecies approaches, with a particular focus on China. She examines how concepts like 'sufficiency' manifest in everyday practices, particularly regarding meat and milk consumption, while also exploring the temporal dimensions of home-making among migrants. Her research combines archival work on Chinese migrant letters (qiaopi) with contemporary ethnographic fieldwork in China.

Analysis of Dr. Chen's recent publications reveals a consistent trajectory connecting historical and contemporary practices of migration, home-making, and sustainable living. Her work has evolved from studying archival materials on Chinese diaspora to contemporary food practices and sustainability issues, demonstrating how historical patterns inform present-day challenges. The recurring themes across her publications include sensuous ethnography, cosmopolitan networks, and the materiality of everyday practices that constitute 'home' and 'sufficiency' in rapidly changing social and environmental contexts.

Dr. Chen has received numerous prestigious awards including the AGRUMIG EU H2020 Postdoc Research Fellowship (2020), Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund (2019), and the First Prize of David Riches Medal (2014). Her other notable recognitions include multiple fellowships from the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies, Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies, and Scotland's Saltire Scholarship.

• AGRUMIG EU H2020 Postdoc Research Fellowship (2020)
• Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund (2019)
• First Prize of David Riches Medal (2014)
• Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust (2014)
• The Great Britain-China Educational Trust (2013)

Dr. Chen currently supervises PhD student Wenjia Zhou and is actively involved in multiple research projects including the MidWay project on sufficiency in China and collaborations with the Centre for Energy, Climate and the Environment at NTNU. She has organized several international workshops and conferences, including panels at the Annual Asianet Conference and EASA conferences. Her outreach activities include public talks in China, Norway, and the UK, focusing on making anthropological insights accessible to wider audiences.

Dr. Chen is associated with two key research groups: the Centre for Energy, Climate and the Environment and the Temporalities of Mobility and Migration group at NTNU. These affiliations reflect her interdisciplinary approach that bridges environmental concerns with migration studies and temporal analysis. Her current fieldwork in China examines pig farming communities and urban food practices, documenting how traditional knowledge systems interact with contemporary sustainability challenges.