Dr Lara Momesso

Lara Momesso is a research associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS. During her Masters Studies at National Chengchi University (Taiwan) in 2008, she became interested in marriage migration between the PRC and Taiwan. Since then, cross-Strait marriage migration has been her major research interest and a channel to explore how gender roles and patterns have changed in contemporary Chinese societies as a consequence of the opening-up of previously forbidden borders. Furthermore, thanks to several long-term fieldwork with migrant communities, Lara explored individual and collective resistances of cross-Strait marriage migrants in different private and public contexts, such as the family, civil society organisations, the state, the society.

Lara was granted her PhD degree in November 2013. Between 2013 and 2017 she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for European and International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth. She also is an Associate Fellow at the European Research Centre on Contemporary Taiwan, University of Tuebingen and an elected executive board member of the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS).

Currently, Lara is a Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the School of Language and Global Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. Her current research interests include contemporary migrations across the Asia Pacific region with a particular focus on marriage migration between China and Taiwan, family formation in contemporary Chinese societies, gender in the Asia Pacific region.

Lara's research on marriage migration has been published by Journal of Current Chinese Affairs,Asiatische Studien, Asia Pacific Migration Journal, Chinese Journal of Communication and Berliner China-Hefte – Chinese History and Society and included in book chapters such as Immigration Societies – Taiwan and Beyond (LIT) and Migration – Geschlecht – Lebenswege (LIT Verlag), Taiwan’s Social Movements under Ma Ying-jeou. From the Wild Strawberries to the Sunflowers (Routledge).