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As a UCL Mellon Fellow, Mi’s research concentrated on the representation of the Balkans in photography and literature from the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, and in the way in which, during this period, photography of, and writing on, the Balkans have been bound up with war and conflict: as subject, theme, and means of production. Her research examined the implication of this relationship and theorises the role of artistic media in the construction of the Balkans as a political entity.
Mi was born in China and spent her formative years there. She moved to Sydney when she was eleven years old and is the product of an Australian education. She studied law, English literature and international relations at the University of New South Wales. Before coming to the UK in 2005 for doctoral research, she practised as a corporate lawyer briefly but decided to concentrate on human rights and refugee law. She has acted for clients seeking refugee status and also for refugees seeking to assert economic and social rights in Egypt, South Africa and Australia, and has also been involved in drafting minority rights legislation and setting up mechanisms for political participations of minorities in Kosovo. She has litigated constitutional and civil claims in South Africa and Australia.
Degrees
- 2009: PhD in English, University of Cambridge
Thesis: Sublime Noise: Reading EM Forster Musically.
- 2004: MA in International Relations, University of New South Wales
Thesis: Status of Tibet and Alternative Models of Self Determination
- 2002: BA in English (Honours) , University of New South Wales
Thesis: Music Half Heard: TS Eliot’s Four Quartets
- 2002: LLB (Dean’s Certificate), University of New South Wales
Scholarships and Awards
- 2005-2009: Gates Cambridge Scholarship, UK
- 2005-2008: ORSAS, UK
- 2004: Grant from Foundation for Young Australians, Australia
- 2002: University Medal in English, University of New South Wales, Australia
Publications
- ‘Secrets Unavowed’ (review of Hélène Cixous, Dream I Tell You, trans. Beverley Bie Brahic, Edinburgh University Press, 2006) Women: a cultural review, Vol 19 No 2, 2008
- With V. Stephens and A. Zeqiri, ‘Implementation of the Decentralisation Process in Kosovo: Perspectives and Challenges’, in European Yearbook of Minority Issues: Volume 7, 2007/2008 (Leiden & Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, 2010), pp. 695-716.
- With B. Etherington, ‘Introduction: Pure Language, Pure Medium?’, in Comparative Critical Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, forthcoming February 2011.
- ‘Fiction as musicology: aesthetic listening in E. M. Forster’s Howards End’, in Forum for Modern Language Studies, forthcoming January or July 2011.
- ‘The Monster Within: Ali Pasha’s Serai in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, in M. Huettler and H. E. Weidinger (eds), Ottoman Empire and European Theatre, Vol. III: Seraglios and Harems (Vienna: Hollitzer Wissenschaftsverlag and LIT-Verlag, forthcoming 2011).
- ‘The girling of Beethoven: The Fidelio Club 1901-9’ for Music and Letters.