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Digital Media
Platforms · Social Media · Generative AI
How digital technologies shape online-offline experience, emotional life and everyday relationships.
Digital media · Intercultural communication · Migration
Dr Bei (Jenny) Ju
Lives in
motion,
stories in
connection.
View all my research outputs
Manchester · UK
Hello, I’m Bei. Welcome!
I explore the nexus between digital technologies, intercultural communication and migration, examining how digital media shape adaptation, homemaking and female development.
Assistant Professor in Intercultural Communication
The University of Manchester
My research constellation
Three fields.
One connected inquiry.
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Migration
Mobility · Adaptation · Homemaking
How migrants navigate uncertainty, connection and belonging across borders and institutions.
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Intercultural Communication
Learning · Identity · Connection
How culturally diverse communities negotiate difference through communication and reflection.
My selected publications
04
Recent work across media and migration
Writing across
media and mobility.
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Overt Conviviality and Covert Distress: Navigating the Emotional Experiences of Rural Chinese Left-behind Women via Douyin
‘Intercultural Dating is Our Painkiller’: Navigating Digitally Mediated Acculturation among Chinese Female International Students in the UK
(Re)Making Live-in or Live-out Choice: The Lived Experience of Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers in Macao
Resilience and (Dis)Empowerment: Use of Social Media among Female Mainland Migrant Workers in Macao During COVID-19
My selected inquiries
03
Research across platforms, borders and everyday lives.
AI chatbots and
intercultural adaptation.
I explore how Chinese female international students engage with generative AI to navigate uncertainty, remake intercultural practices and critically reflect on adaptation.
WeChat and Community Building
I examine WeChat’s affordances for marginalised communities through a socio-technical perspective.
Social Media and Migrant Resilience
I study digital (dis)empowerment among female and cross-border migrant workers.
- Academic role
- Assistant Professor, University of Manchester
- Education
- PhD in Communication, University of Macau
- Professional recognition
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
About me
Communication is where movement becomes meaning.
Before joining Manchester, I was an Assistant Professor at Macau University of Science and Technology and a Researcher and Outreach Officer at the United Nations University Institute in Macau.
My work spans cross-border labour migration, transnational family life and international education, with particular attention to women and communities in vulnerable conditions.
Associate Editor · Frontiers in Communication ↗
Editorial Board · Communication Monographs ↗
Editorial Board · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications ↗
Member · ESRC Peer Review College