Juntao Lyu

Email: ssjly@leeds.ac.uk
Thesis title: Negotiating Health and Migration Aspirations - Lay Health Beliefs among Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Workers in Shanghai and Beijing
Supervisors: Professor Nick Emmel, Professor Adrian Favell, Professor Anne Kerr

Profile

Academic background

I am interested in health-related social research, including sociology of health, population health, and health economics. In my sociological studies, I have been doing ethnographic studies in urban environments, including healthcare settings and community settings.

My master's degree study focused on the operations and medical conditions of informal clinics in migrant communities in Shanghai. My PhD focused on the health views, lay health knowledge, and self-care methods people developed in their everyday life outside of healthcare systems.

I am also a professional quantitative data analyst skilled in R programming, and I have been doing data processing, modelling, big data research in population health, health economics, and providing statistical support for a wide range of clinical research settings.

Teaching experience

Teaching Assistant - Semester 2, 2016/2017 Academic Year – SLSP1160 Understanding and Researching the City (level 1) (leading 2 one-hour-long seminars per week, 4 weeks SPSS instruction, and marking assignments).
Guest Lecturer - May 2018 - Qualitative Research Methods in Psychiatry and Mental Health: Understanding, Implementing and Evaluating. Held by Shanghai Hongkou Mental Health Centre. Cooperated with the research project "Qualitative Study on the Precise Indications of Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (G-CBT) on Depressive Disorder" (No.20174Y0135). Funded by the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.
Teaching Assistant- Semester 2, 2019/2020 Academic Year – SLSP1160 Understanding and Researching the City (level 1) (leading 3 one-hour-long seminars per week and marking assignments).

Research engagement

Research Volunteer: Focus group seminar to explore the sexual health survey terminological issues in English - Chinese translation for the “Australian Study of Health and Relationships” research project, led by Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Australia. September 2020.
Research Assistant: Quantitative data processor for the research project “Urban Expansion and Housing Affordability in China” led by Dr Sun Li at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds. August – September 2019.
Research Assistant: Qualitative evaluator for the research project "Qualitative Study on the Precise Indications of Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (G-CBT) on Depressive Disorder" (No.20174Y0135). Funded by the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission. May 2018

Visiting position

Visit PhD student at the Asian Demographic Research Institute (Shanghai University). Advisor: Professor Guy Abel. Attended course: Statistical Modelling in Demographic Studies. Shanghai, China. January 2018 – July 2018

Conference presentations

10/09/2019 – Australian Social Policy Conference 2019. Presentation – Social Health Insurance & Inequality in China.
12/09/2017 - RC21 Leeds International Academic Conference for Critical Urban Studies: Rethinking Urban Global Justice. Presentation - Seeking Underground Doctors among Chinese Migrant Workers in Shanghai.

Publications

ORCID

Articles

2021 – Late Breaking Abstract-Comparative Effectiveness of Anti-IL5/5R Versus Anti-IgE in Patients Eligible for Both (FIRE). Ali, N., Lyu, J., Newell, A., Sadatsafavi, M., Tran, T.N. and Price, D.B., 2021.
2017 - The Story of a Left-Behind Child of China, LYU J. GRIFFITH JOURNAL OF LAW and HUMAN DIGNITY Vol 5, No 1 (2017), 153-165
2016 - A Multilevel Analysis on Client Subjective Evaluation About the Urban Minimum Living Guarantee System in China - Based on Chinese Urban and Rural Poor Families Social Policy Support System Building Project Survey Data of 2013, LI M, QIU H, LYU J. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION Vol3, No. 5. (2016), 29-38

Book chapters

2016 - In View of Fairness and Justice: a Monographic Study of China Social Aid System, 89-112, Guo W, Feng B, LYU J, ISBN 978-7-5087-5327-0. China Social Press, Beijing, 2016

Career expectations

I would like to continue my academic career in universities, I am also open to opportunities to work in international organisations, NGOs, research institutes, or private companies.

My PhD research

Adopting both demographic and ethnographic approaches, my thesis examines the processes through which health inequalities are reinforced and reproduced among rural migrants in contemporary urban China.

It places a particular focus on what appears to be a common struggle shared by rural migrant workers, that of meeting their migration aspirations and expectations while afflicted by health, illness and disease-related constraints.

This thesis will first examine the demographic health characteristics of Chinese migrant workers’ before utilising ethnographic research approaches to examine their subjective constructions of health knowledge and lay health practices. By contrasting how migrant workers, specifically migrant parents, manage their family health problems in different individual and social settings, my thesis explores the micro-mechanisms of the reproduction of health inequalities as reflected in migrant workers’ understandings and interpretations of health-related behaviours, lay health beliefs and lay aetiologic accounts.

Ultimately, this thesis illustrates the processes through which social inequalities have become embedded in health, which, in turn, shape people’s subjective understandings of achievement and health.

Similar to other migrant workers over the world, the health challenges faced by Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers are influenced by many other broad social inequalities and limitations they encounter in new spaces.

As this thesis demonstrates, it is not simply enough to address the health challenges of migrant workers in a vacuum, focusing on illness or disease alone. A greater focus must be placed on understanding the aspirations of migrant workers and their changing perspectives throughout their migration journeys.

My research interests

Sociology of health and illness
Population health
Health economics
Quantitative and qualitative research methods
Applying R programming in social research