Meet the team!
Intersections: A Journal of Language, Culture, and Ideas is an online magazine featuring writing in Chinese and English by members of the Duke Kunshan community. As a multilingual community whose members are constantly engaged in learning one another’s languages and cultures—particularly those of Chinese and English-speaking countries—DKU is a place where conversations about language and culture are part of the fabric of daily life. Intersections seeks to create a space where that dialogue can unfold in written form, at greater length, and with more nuance than it can in the cafeteria, hallway, or dorm room. In keeping with DKU’s language-learning spirit, as much as possible articles will be written in the author’s second language: primarily learners of English as second language writing in English, and learners of Chinese as a second language writing in Chinese.
John Noonan teaches journalism and EAP courses for DKU. His interests lie in the areas of feature writing on cultural trends in society, international affairs, and reporting on environmental issues. He is also very passionate about the outdoors — especially China’s unique wild nature areas.
Zhou Xiayun (周夏昀), Chinese language Lecturer at DKU. She joined DKU in 2014 and has been teaching Chinese to international students at different proficiency levels. She encourages her students to write in Chinese language and submit articles to Intersections. She is now serving as a faculty advisor for Intersections.
周夏昀，于2014年加入昆山杜克大学，现为昆山杜克大学中文语言讲师。在此期间，周夏昀教授适合不同水平学生的中文语言课程。她鼓励她的国际学生用中文写作，并向《交集》投稿。她现在作为教师顾问与学生们一起致力于《交集》的发展。
Austin Woerner is a Chinese-English literary translator. He has translated a novel, The Invisible Valley by Su Wei, and two volumes of poetry, Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe, and Ouyang Jianghe’s book-length poem Phoenix. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Poetry, the Asian American Literary Review, the Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.
Formerly the English translation editor for the innovative Chinese literary journal Chutzpah!, Austin also co-edited the short fiction anthology Chutzpah!: New Voices from China. Before coming to Duke Kunshan University he taught creative writing, academic writing, and translation at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.
Hi, I’m Lexue Song (Silvia), majoring in Data Science. I come from Yantai, a beautiful coastal city in Shandong. I’m the WeChat Official Account Director of Intersections. I enjoy exploring another culture by reading other people’s articles. In my spare time, I like listening to music, doing sports and traveling.
Xinyue Wang is a psychology student from the class of 2024. She has always enjoyed working with words, especially when it comes to her native language, Chinese. Served as the main Chinese editor, she works with international students who are interested in Chinese writing and cultural topics.
Giulia de Cristofaro is part of the DKU class of 2024. She studies Political Economy at Duke Kunshan University and is the managing editor for Intersections. She is both Brazilian and Italian and, in her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends and playing volleyball.
Josh Manto studies data science and is part of DKU class of 2024. He is the website editor and marketing head for Intersections. He is from Manila, Philippines. In his free time he enjoys hiking, smoking a pipe, and enjoying nature.
