UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State faculty member has earned an award from the International Communication Association (ICA) that honors her research and scholarship.
Sara Liao, an assistant professor in the Department of Film Production and Media Studies in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, was named as winner of the 2023 Helen Award for Emerging Feminist Scholarship. Liao’s research and writing focus on the feminist movement in China and activism against sexual harassment, sexism and misogyny.
She will be honored at the ICA Conference, which will be conducted in Toronto in late May.
Liao’s research examines how media technologies, the state, consumerism and gender dynamics are imbricated in the production of culture and the various forms of identities in a transnational setting, with a focus on broader Chinese societies. Her 2020 book, “Fashioning China: Precarious Creativity of Women Designers in Shanzhai Culture,” focuses on the creativity and precarity of a group of women fashion designers, whose experience encapsulates the shifting cultural terrain in China.
Liao also has various publications in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals. She earned her doctorate in media studies from the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas. She worked at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as an assistant professor before joining the Bellisario College.
Liao also worked as the convener of the global communication undergraduate program in the School of Journalism and Communication at CUHK and has varied teaching experience, with courses such as communications theory, gender and media, and global communication.
The ICA aims to advance the scholarly study of communication by encouraging and facilitating excellence in academic research worldwide. The association began more than 50 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now a truly international association with more than 5,000 members in over 80 countries. Since 2003, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations as a nongovernmental association.