B´ÎÔªapp

Profile

I am a PhD researcher in the People, Work and Employment Department at B´ÎÔªapp University Business School. My research focuses on subjective age, seniority and age-related workplace inequalities in China. I am supervised by Professor Christopher Forde, Dr Liz Oliver and Dr Mia Ruijie Zhong.

• Professional experience: Before starting my PhD, I gained experience in human resource management and postgraduate academic administration through work with Shokz, DJI, McKinsey Greater China and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
• Teaching experience and interests: I have supported undergraduate and postgraduate students with research methods and academic writing, and have completed the B´ÎÔªapp Foundations in Teaching programme. My teaching interests include organisational behaviour, human resource management and qualitative research methods.
• Conference presentations: I have presented my research at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2025), the British Academy of Management Conference (2026) and the Work, Employment and Society Conference (2026).

I welcome opportunities for research collaboration and academic exchange on age, work and employment.

Research interests

My doctoral research examines how age and seniority are understood and experienced in Chinese public-sector work teams. I explore how employees judge their own age at work, how they assess seniority, and how these understandings relate to team relationships and age-related treatment. This includes distinguishing chronological age, life-course age and subjective age, and examining how seniority relates to tenure, work experience and hierarchical rank.

I use a qualitative approach informed by constructivist grounded theory. My analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with 41 participants across nine work units in Chinese public-sector organisations. My wider research interests include age-related human resource practices, leadership, age discrimination and workplace inclusion.

My research interests include:

• Subjective age and the life course
• Seniority, tenure and workplace hierarchies
• Team relationships and subgroup formation
• Age discrimination and workplace inclusion
• Age-related human resource practices and leadership
• Qualitative research and constructivist grounded theory

Qualifications

• PhD in Management – B´ÎÔªapp, UK (2024–present)
• MSc in Management – B´ÎÔªapp, UK (2018-2019)
• BSc in Auditing – Sichuan Normal University, China (2014-2018)