Tina Honghui Pan is a postdoctoral researcher in BIRMM, the Research Centre for Migration, Diversity and Justice of the Brussels School of Governance in Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She obtained her PhD degree of Adult Educational Sciences in VUB in 2019. After her PhD, she developed profound research interests in cultural implications for wellbeing and loneliness in older migrants with an ethnic minority background. She has taught courses such as qualitative research methodology courses (e.g. focus group analysis). She has also taken up teaching assistant role in several master-level classes such as statistics for social sciences and onderzoekpracticum. She has been active in linking research to society by participating in several local and international projects, which aim to give a voice to and empower vulnerable people.
Her research interests focus on: racism and inequality, social participation of those with a migration minority background. She is keen to explore the different forms of racism and inequality in our society, cultural implications for social participation and loneliness and wellbeing issues for people with an ethnic minority background. She has carried out research with a societal impact in different levels: local YouMatter project with NGOs in Brussels to reconnect lonely migrants to society in the post-covid-19 era and CIVEX project funded by EU to explore civic participation among the vulnerable groups in our society. During the covid-19 pandemic, she coordinated research focusing on increased loneliness in older Chinese migrants and risk and protective factors to loneliness.