Rhonda Ran Huo 霍然

Rhonda Ran Huo 霍然

Contact Information

East Asian Languages & Cultures
2036 LCLB
PhD Candidate, Teaching Assistant

Research Interests

  • Qing Imperial and Inner Asian History
  • Borderland Knowledge and Intellectual History
  • Knowledge Production and Circulation
  • Censorship, Propaganda, and Political Communication
  • Manchu Language Studies

 

Education

M.A. East Asian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

B.A. History, Tunghai University 東海大學, Taiwan 

            

 

Grants

2026     UIUC Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant ($5,000)

2024     UIUC EALC Late Spring Research Fellowship ($5,000)

2023     UIUC EALC Summer Research Fellowship ($2,000)

Awards and Honors

2026     Best Chinese Language Teaching Assistant Award, Department of EALC, UIUC

2025     Toby Award for Best Graduate Research Paper on Premodern East Asia 

               Paper Title: “Manchu Refinement of Hanyu Phonology and Its Limits: From Elucidation of Phonology to Wang Zhao’s Phonetic 

Script”

Courses Taught

Teaching Assistant

Fall 2026          Popular Cultures of Contemporary East Asia (Professor: Belinda Qian He)   

Fall 2025         The Chinese Language (Professor: Yunwen Su)

                            Guest Lecture: “Chinese Dialects and Regionalects in Popular Songs”  (Facilitating Learning Excellence Award)

Spring 2025   Popular Cultures of Contemporary East Asia (Professor: Jingling Chen)

                           Guest Lecture: “Chinese LGBTQ Movies and Family Relationship” (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Fall 2024         Popular Cultures of Contemporary East Asia (Professor: Gian-Piero Persiani)   

                           Guest Lecture: “Slash Fandom and Fujoshi” (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Instructor of Record

Spring 2026   Intermediate Chinese II  (Perfect 5.0/5.0 FLEX student evaluation rating)

Spring 2024   Elementary Chinese II  (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Fall 2023         Elementary Chinese I   (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Spring 2023  Advanced Chinese II    (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Fall 2022        Advanced Chinese I    (Teacher Ranked as Excellent by Their Students)

Additional Campus Affiliations

Academic Service 

2024–26  Co-Chair, Asian Studies Group at Urbana-Champaign

  •  Organized academic workshops, including preparing funding applications, communicating with faculty speakers, scheduling meetings, and coordinating event logistics.

  •  Coordinated IShare, a graduate student research presentation series, by recruiting presenters, reserving venues, and organizing presentation sessions.

  •  Maintained the organization’s website and prepared meeting agendas, minutes, and administrative records.

Recent Publications

Kim, Loretta 金由美, Monica Chang Kin-Ian 曾健欣, Eric Suen Sen-kit 孫晨傑, Zhou Chengyi 周乘伊, Huo Ran 霍然, and Eugenia Kim 金尚美. “Materialising the Intangible: Building and Analyzing a Digital Lexicon of Non-Han Names from Records of Northeast China” 「無形から具体へ: 中国東北の記録に基づく非漢族人名デジタル索引の構築と分析」Manzokushi kenkyū 満族史研究 (Journal of Manchu and Qing Studies), volume 21 (Dec. 2022): 1–29.