Travel Awards 2026

Shuyue Xie is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Durham University. Her research investigates the politics of memory and identity among the Yunnanese Chinese diaspora in Thailand. Specifically, her work examines how memory is shaped, contested, and instrumentalised, and the subsequent impact of these processes on identity construction. Outside of her doctoral research, she is an active basketball player and bouldering enthusiast.

Julius Kochan is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford where he researches and teaches on contemporary Chinese literature and culture. His thesis examines the meanings that the skin and its associated markings carry in contemporary Chinese writing and visual art. He worked and studied for a number of years in the Chinese-speaking world before starting his doctorate. Julius’ first degree was in Russian at the University of Cambridge, and he maintains a strong interest in Russia, both translating from Russian into English and working on Sino-Russian comparative projects. He is particularly interested in the city of Harbin in Northeast China.

Annabel Langdon is a PhD student in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Korean Studies) at the University of Cambridge. She holds a BA in Korean Studies from the University of Sheffield and an MSc from the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on Jeju Island’s haenyeo (female free divers), examining their activism during the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945) and the shifting ways this history has been forgotten, remembered, and commemorated. Her work combines archival research with fieldwork on Jeju Island and across South Korea.

Daniel Thorpe is a British-Hungarian journalist. He read Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Turkish) at Oxford and has worked extensively across Turkey and the Middle East. His project is a documentary investigation into the Armenian architectural and social history of Sivas province in Central Anatolia with the aim of compiling a photographic and oral history of the region.