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Sophia Feiyan Gao

Sophia Feiyan Gao

PhD Candidate
Arts, Design & Architecture
School of Humanities & Languages

Email: feiyan.gao@unsw.edu.au

Supervisors: Karyn Lai, Ann Pang-White, Timothy O'Leary 

Sophia Feiyan Gao is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, where her research is guided by philosophers Karyn Lai and Timothy O’Leary. She earned her MPhil in Philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Sophia’s current research is devoted to pre-Qin Confucian philosophy, feminist moral philosophy, and comparative philosophy. Her current project aims to establish a hybrid Mencian-Feminist model of care ethics, with special attention to relationality in care.

  • Chinese Philosophy
  • Feminist Philosophy
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Comparative Philosophy

Publications

  • Confucianism and Democracy: Four Models of Compatibility, Journal of Chinese Humanities, 6 (2020) 213-234, (with Aaron J. Walayat).
  • The Compatibility of Confucianism and Law, Pace Law Review, (2020) Vol. 41.1, 234-258, (with Aaron J. Walayat).

Conference Presentations/Seminars

  • "Dynamics of Power and Relational Agency in Care: A Hybrid Mencian-Feminist Model of Care" 2023 Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought, York University, Toronto, Canada.
  • "Mencian Ceyin Encountering Nel Noddings’ Receptive Empathy: A Hybrid Model of Mencian-Feminist Care Ethics" 2022 North-East Conference on Chinese Thought, Yale University, Connecticut. US.
  • "Sympathy and Empathy in Care Practice: A Hybrid Model of Noddings' Feminist Care Ethics and Mencian Philosophy" 2022 APA Eastern Division Meeting, Maryland, US.
  • "Is Confu-China a Realistic Utopia?" 2018 World Congress of Philosophy, Peking University, Beijing, China.
  • "A Sentimentalist Account of Moral Intuition" 2018 Summer Seminars on Moral Epistemology, Central Europe University, Budapest, Hungary.
  • "How to Promote Religious Conversation in Higher Education" 2016 Association of Christian Universities and Colleges, Bandung, Indonesia.
  • "Traditional Chinese Thoughts and Management" 2013 Traditional Chinese Thoughts and Management Speech Contest, Lingnan University, HK, China.

Works in Progress

  • "Renovating Feminism: Theorizing Confucian Feminism in Times of Political Transformation" (with Brooke Ackerly and Li Wei, "重建女性主義：儒家女性主義關於政治變革的理論化構建," in Chinese).

Work Experience 

  • 2018, Applied Ethics, Teaching Assistant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong   
  • 2018, Bioethics, Teaching Assistant, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 
  • 2016-2019, IELTS Writing Program, IELTS Writing Teacher, Papa Education Inc.      
  • 2015, Presentation Delivery Skills Workshop, Teaching Assistant, Yeungnam University (South Korea) English Camp