Hwa Yeong Wang
Dr. Hwa Yeong Wang is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duke Kunshan University, specializing in East Asian and comparative philosophy, with a focus on Confucian philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the intellectual history of women, gender, and ritual in Korea and China. She is co-editor and co-translator of Korean Women Philosophers and the Ideal of a Female Sage (Oxford University Press, 2023) and the Readings in Korean Confucian Philosophy (Hackett, 2026), alongside recent publications in Asian Philosophy and The Journal of Chinese Philosophy. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Sungkyunkwan University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Binghamton University (State University of New York), and previously held postdoctoral fellowships at Georgetown and Emory University before joining Duke Kunshan.
Qirui Lei | DKU Class of 2029
Has long been drawn to questions of gender and social justice, she sees these not only as cultural or theoretical issues but as urgent policy questions. She believes that meaningful change requires both critical reflection and action. She served as the research assistant at the HRC Harmony Lab and is the student organizer of the Unlearning Gender on Campus project, both of which reflect this conviction. She hopes to explore how participatory, low- hierarchy, and people-centered methods can surface discussions on norms that are difficult to address in daily life, and what it takes to make such conversations matter beyond the room they happen in.
Xinyan Ruan | DKU Class of 2029
A self-motivated learner. Influenced by films and media she watched in her childhood (such as Beauty and the Beast), her interest in feminist ideas began taking root early on. She explored literature on women’s movements and the evolution of patriarchy during high school. Her journey became more systematic at DKU through her first writing course, Confucianism and Feminism. She has realized that feminism provides a lens for critically analyzing complex social issues, aiming to foster meaningful conversations with fellow students and engage like-minded individuals to promote social harmony.
Shuyuan Tang | DKU Class of 2029
Shuyuan Tang is an undergraduate student at Duke Kunshan University interested in feminism, family ethics, and Confucian philosophy. After taking Confucian Feminism and joining the Harmony Lab Student Study Group, she explored how feminist theory can engage with Confucian thought and everyday questions of gender and family. Through the project, she hopes to deepen her engagement with these ideas while exploring how they can be brought into dialogue with students’ everyday experiences through podcasts and other forms of public humanities.
