Chrisyl Wong-Hang-Sun

Chrisyl Wong-Hang-Sun is a PhD researcher in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (UoE), researching coconut plantations in the dependent islands of Mauritius, with support from the AHRC DTP at the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH). Her research interests include plantation labour, human/nonhuman relations, multispecies and creative research methods, and the ethnography of the Republic of Mauritius and its dependent islands. Her research proposal was also awarded a SGSSS ESRC DTP scholarship.

Her MRes in Anthropology explored native and older generation Chagossian perspectives on migration to the UK, through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, granting British citizenship for all Chagossian descendants. Her MRes thesis and poetry was published in the edited volume, ‘Challenges and Prospects for the Chagos Archipelago’ (2024). Her MRes academic performance earned her a place on the Dean’s List (2023), and she was awarded the ‘Best Dissertation Award in Anthropology’ for her BSc thesis.

Prior to joining the UoE, SGSAH, and the SHF, Chrisyl worked as a Project Curator for the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP) at the British Museum. During her time at EMKP, Chrisyl presented a paper for the Museum Ethnographer’s Group Annual Conference (2024), highlighting the plight of Chagossians, and the role of the museum in advocating for endangered indigenous material culture. Subsequently, she was invited to write for the Journal of Museum Ethnography (2025).

Chrisyl is of Mauritian and Chagossian heritage and is the daughter of first-generation working-class immigrants. Chrisyl is grateful to be a SHF fellow and is delighted to learn and build solidarity with students of similar backgrounds, aiming to promote accessibility and inclusivity in academia. Passionate about dissemination, Chrisyl enjoys the practice of writing poetry, and is interested in the ways in which poetry can explore, translate, and bring awareness to emotional/challenging ethnographic experiences.