Summer Shengmeng Cui

Researcher in philosophy of education. I am a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. My research examines how Chinese international students engage with generative AI in Australian higher education, drawing on a Heidegger–Dewey philosophical framework. I also serve on the committee of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA).

University of Melbourne profile

My work sits at the intersection of philosophy of education, digital culture, and social theory. I’m interested in how education, technology, work, and public life shape human lives and self-understanding, with particular interests in generative AI in education, postdigital education, international student experience, educational professionalism, work and occupation, and questions of death and finitude. More broadly, my research explores how stories, technologies, institutions, and policy shape everyday life, belonging, judgment, and the meaning of education.

Teaching across environmental education, education policy, and digital transformations in higher education, I have also worked extensively in English language education in China and Australia, with experience across English language education, vocational training and educaiton, and higher education contexts. My research combines conceptual inquiry with qualitative and interpretive approaches, and is particularly attentive to the relationship between human life, education, and contemporary technological change.