Ren TanAssistant Teaching Professor

Ren Tan received her PhD in Asian and International Studies from the City University of Hong Kong in 2016. Her research examines the cultural and intellectual history of Sino-Japanese exchange, with particular interests in transnational knowledge circulation, memory politics, and the afterlives of classical traditions in modern East Asia. Her work bridges literary studies, intellectual history, and language pedagogy, exploring how ideas travel across borders and acquire new political and educational meanings. Her current project, From Mencius to Modern States: Reframing Classical Tradition and Power, explores how the Mencian principles has been reinterpreted across imperial China, early modern and modern Japan, and contemporary East Asia to serve changing visions of sovereignty and moral governance.

 

Her pedagogical work engages transformative language learning (TLLT) and task-based language teaching (TBLT), exploring how communicative and performance-based learning can enhance oral proficiency and intercultural competence. Through inquiry-driven and collaborative learning, she aims to cultivate students’ capacity for cultural interpretation, ethical reflection, and critical engagement with the world.