On Friday, 15 May 2026, members of the Whitley College Research Community, including faculty, teachers, research students, and honorary researchers, are warmly invited to gather for a day of research-focused engagement.
You are welcome to join us in person at our Box Hill campus or participate online. This will be a valuable opportunity to connect, share in the life of our research community, and engage together in thoughtful and enriching discussion.
You can download the flyer here and share it with others in your network who may be interested. Read more below.
TIMETABLE OF EVENTS:
| Morning | Lunchtime | Afternoon |
| 10:30 am (AEST) Gathering in Box Hill and Morning Tea 11:00 am (AEST) Online Book Launch: Xiaoli Yang and Daryl R. Ireland (eds.) Chinese Christian Witness: Identity. Creativity. Transmission, and Poetics | 12.30 p.m. (AEST) Join us for lunch in Box Hill or BYO online and share in conversation about research work and research training hosted by Sean Winter, Dean of Research at Whitley | 2.00 – 3.30 p.m. (AEST) Research Seminar Dr Nuam Hatzaw, “Citizens of Heaven: Ethnic Minority Christians and Belonging” For abstract and details see below |
REGISTRATION AND LINKS:
For those attending on campus in Box Hill, lunch will be provided. Please emailSean Winter at swinter@whitley.edu.au to confirm your place.
For those joining online:
Please register for the book launch here: www.bu.edu/cgcm/registration/
No registration is required if you plan to attend and watch the book launch on campus.
To join the lunchtime and afternoon sessions online, please use the Zoom link below:
https://divinity.zoom.us/j/83235332282?pwd=63nLWST8yUXQ9AbFZbC2gX8OOw6ni8.1
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Online Book Launch: 11.00 a.m.
Chinese Christian Witness: Identity, Creativity, Transmission and Poetics, edited by Xiaoli Yang and Daryl Ireland.
This volume explores how Chinese Christians have understood and participated in mission over the past few centuries. Authors have written chapters on Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Chinese-initiated movements; they cover Chinese Christians in Oceania, Africa, Europe, and Asia. For those interested in Chinese Christians in the People’s Republic of China, the book includes chapters on both registered and unregistered churches.
One distinctive feature is that the book also considers multiple artworks by Chinese Christians: plays, songs, paintings, sculptures, etc. They provide an opportunity to discover Chinese missiology through understudied media.
Dr Xiaoli Yang is an Honorary Research Fellow at Whitley and the University of Divinity
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Lunchtime Conversation: 12.30 p.m.
Research@Whitley
Over lunch there will be opportunity to discuss research projects, plans, and events for 2026 and beyond as well as identify possible priorities for research training and development.
Facilitated by Sean Winter, Dean of Research at Whitley College.
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Research Seminar: 2.00 p.m.
Citizens of Heaven: Ethnic Minority Christians and Belonging
This paper examines the religiously-conditioned notions of belonging among ethnic minority Christians in Edinburgh, Scotland. It takes place against the backdrop of two phenomena: first, Scotland’s increasing ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity; and second, Scotland’s self-understanding as a welcoming and inclusive country with a low barrier to belonging. Based on in-depth interviews with 9 ethnic minority Christians residing in Edinburgh, this paper examines how their ethnic and religious identities are interwoven to shape their sense of belonging in Scotland. It argues that they possess a flexible, multidirectional belonging that reflects the broader landscape of a secular, diversifying Scotland and their ambivalent and contested status as minorities, and then offers some suggestions for how this minority perspective might yield new insights into theologies of belonging, identity, and nationalism.
Dr Nuam Hatzaw is a Zomi theologian whose research examines questions of identity and belonging in contexts of migration, diaspora, and nationalism. She is Lecturer in Asian Christianity at Church Mission Society and deputy convenor of the Acts 11 Centre for Global Witness and Human Migration. . She also serves as mentor and consultant for the Chin State Academic Research Network, a non-profit dedicated to promoting education and research in and from the region.