Fiona: My current research focuses on the experiences of hosts of Ukrainian refugees in Scotland where I am working with a team of researchers with lived experiences of being both hosts and guests to create a series of podcasts that will reflect the complexities of building relationships within this context. We as a team are currently writing papers around how expectations on the part of hosts, and Ukrainian guests, shaped how intimacies were either achieved, or not, in the hosting context along with reflecting on notions of ‘deserving’ refugees and how this relates to intimacy.

The second project I am currently writing about was conducted in collaboration with Police Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland to interview young men in Scotland (aged 18 to 25 years) about how they react to, and feel about, violence against women prevention messages. The focus on relationships includes those between young men and their friends, between young men and women in their lives and also between young men and their perception of ‘feminist discourse’ they feel is prevalent in the media.

I recently completed a project exploring experiences of working parents during social restrictions related to the Covid-19 virus. This work highlights the ways working parents had to manage paid work and unpaid care together, largely in the home, with the impact of pre-existing inequalities of resources being particularly relevant specifically; income, space at home, access to outside space, flexible employment and having a co-parent to share childcare with. This project emphasises the nature of Covid-19 related restrictions reflecting the sentiment that while we were all in the same storm during Covid, we were not all in the same boat!

Guanyu: My main research interests related to families and relationships focus on understanding the correlation between the transnational migration experience and family change with different new immigrant groups (who immigrated around and after the millennium), particularly with the Asian immigrant families settling in Australasia and Europe. With the lens of the sociology of migration, my research employs diverse theoretical perspectives to interrogate the intricate interactions between transnational migration regimes – including family immigration policies, communication and transportation technologies, and the broader socioeconomic and political developments across the globe, to name a few – and the individual agencies of immigrant families and their immediate social and cultural systems. As a qualitative researcher, I often utilise narrative and ethnographic approaches to examine both the convergence and divergence of those interactions and accordingly their influences on immigrant families as well as the broader society. Apart from this, I am also broadly interested in scholarly inquiries into family social care provision and evaluation, critical family-related social policy, as well as intergenerational and multigenerational dynamics.