Curriculum Vitae
Xia (Sharon) Zhang
Adjunct Assistant Professor
College of Urban and Public Affairs
Department of Anthropology
Portland State University
Phone: 206-866-5168; Email:
EDUCATION
2011 / Ph.D. in AnthropologyAdvanced Certificate Program in Asian Studies
Doctoral Certificate Program in Women’s Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Dissertation: Carrying out Modernity: Migration, Work, and Masculinity in China
2002 / M.A. in Chinese Folklore
Beijing Normal University
1999 / B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature
Beijing Normal University
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2015-present / Department of Anthropology, Portland State UniversityAdjunct Assistant Professor
2013-2015 / Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Manhattanville College
Assistant Professor
2011-2013 / Social Sciences Division, University of Minnesota, Morris
Visiting Assistant Professor
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Family, Mental Health, Globalization, Urbanization, Migration, Labor, New Media,Youth Studies, Gender (esp. Masculinity), China, East Asia
PUBLICATIONS
2016(under review) / “North American Despicable Man: Race, Class, and the (Re)making of Diasporic Chinese Masculinities in the United States,” in Derek Hird and Geng Song (ed). Between China and the world: transnational Chinese men and masculinities. University of Hong Kong Press.
2016
(forthcoming) / (invited) ““Review of ‘Out to Work: Migration, Gender, and the Changing Lives of Rural Women in Contemporary China’ by Arianne M. Gaetano,” in American Anthropologist.
2016 / "Labor, Masculinity and History: Bangbang Men in Chongqing, China," inTiantian Zheng (ed),Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Asia. University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 124-139.
2016 / “The Story Tellers and the Transformation of Myth-Telling in Contemporary China: A Case Study in Sigu Village of Chongqing City,” in The Ethnographic Study of Contemporary Oral Myth: Case Studies of Four Han Communities, ed. Lihui Yang. Taiwan: Siu Wei Zi Xun Press, Folklore and Folk Literature Series. Pp. 047-152. (Taiwanese Reprint of 2010 book chapter)
2015 / “One Life For Sale: Youth Culture, Labor Politics, and New Idealism in China,” in Positions: Asia Critique, 23(3): 515-543.
2015 / (invited) “Review of ‘The Impotence Epidemic: Men’s Medicine and Sexual Desire in Contemporary China’ by Everett Yuehong Zhang,” in Anthropological Quarterly, 88(3): 817-823.
2011 / “Review of ‘Outcast Labour In Asia: Circulation and Informalization of the Workforce at the Bottom of the Economy’ by Jan Breman,” in Asia Pacific World, Vol.2 (1), Fall. Pp. 136-138.
2010 / “Ziyou (Freedom), Occupation Choice, and Labor: Bangbang in Chongqing, People’s Republic of China,” in Migration and Class Composition in China, ed. Ralf Ruckus. Assoziation A: Berlin, Germany. Pp. 105-133 (German reprint of my 2008 journal article).
2010 / “The Story Tellers and the Transformation of Myth-Telling in Contemporary China: A Case Study in Sigu Village of Chongqing City,” in The Ethnographic Study of Contemporary Oral Myth: Case Studies of Four Han Communities, ed. Lihui Yang. Shanxi Normal University Press: Xi’an, China.
2008 / “Ziyou (Freedom), Occupation Choice, and Labor: Bangbang in Chongqing, People’s Republic of China,” in International Labor and Working-Class History, 73 (Spring): 65-85.
2002 / “The Flood Myths and Relevant Rituals of the Miao Ethnic Minority Community in the Houshan Village of Chongqing, China,” inGuangdong Folklore. Volume 3 (Autumn): 47-50. (Originally in Chinese: “Chongqing shi Houshan Cun Miaozu Zizhi Qu de Hongshui Shenhua yu Xiangguan Xinyang,” Guangdong Minsu.)
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Xia Zhang. In Pursuit of Ziyou (Freedom): Migration, Work, and Masculinity in China. (Book Project)Xia Zhang. (tentative title) Parents Are Poision: Child Abuse, New Media, and Anti-Parent Sentiments in China (Research Project)
MAJOR GRANTS, AWARDS, AND ACADEMIC HONORS
2015(applied) / American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Collaborative Research Fellowship (Co-PI, $180,000)
2014 / Summer Research Stipend
Manhattanville College ($ 2338)
2012
Summer / Faculty Research Enhancement Fund (Category II and Category IIIi)
University of Minnesota, Morris ($ 2200)
2012
Spring and Fall / Faculty Research Enhancement Fund (Category III)
University of Minnesota, Morris ($800 + $300)
2011
Fall / Faculty Research Enhancement Fund (Category III)
University of Minnesota, Morris ($800 + $300)
2006
Fall / Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship in Chinese Studies
University of Pittsburgh ($ 7500)
2005 / Gender and History Graduate Student Paper Prize
Paper: “Labor, Masculinity and History: Bangbangs in Chongqing, P.R. China”
Sixth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women’s and Gender History, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign ($300)
2002 - 2005 / Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship in Chinese Studies
University of Pittsburgh ($45,000)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2016 / Portland State UniversityINTL 216Introduction to Asian Studies (Spring)
UNST220 Understanding Communities (Winter/Spring)
USP 314 City in Film (Spring)
2013-2015 / Manhattanville College
ANTH 3010 Cultures of Science and Technology (upper-division seminar)
ANTH 3050 Representation and Power in Contemporary China (upper-division seminar)
ANTH 3030 Men and Masculinities (upper-division seminar)
SOC 2015 Women and Work (lower-division course)
ANTH 2041 Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society (lower-division course)
ANTH 1050 Cultural Anthropology (intro-level course)
2011-2013 / University of Minnesota, Morris
ANTH 4411 Anthropological Seminar in Methodology (research method seminar)
ANTH 4901 Anthropological Seminar in Theory (upper-division seminar)
ANTH 1111 Introductory Cultural Anthropology (lecture-based intro-level course)
ANTH 3352 Power and Representation in Contemporary China (upper-division seminar)
ANTH 2604 China in the Era of Globalization (lower-division course)
ANTH 1811 Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society (first year seminar)
ANTH 2605 Anthropology of Globalization (lower-division course)
ANTH 2202 Men and Masculinities (lower-division seminar)
2009
Summer / College of General Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
SELECTED CONFERENCE AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS
2016 / “When Singleton Children Fight Back: Filial Piety, Social Media and Anti-Parents Sentiments in China”Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies, Seattle, WA
2016 / "Gnawing The Elderly Tribe": Class, Youth, and Crisis of Adulthood in China
2016 SCCRconference, Portland, OR
2015 / “Informal Labor, Social Organization and Post-socialist Nostalgia in Urban China”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Denver
2015 / “The Art of Poverty: Class, Grassroots Art, and Value Transaction in Southwest China”
Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies, Chicago
2015 / ““North American Despicable Man”: Race, Class, Sexuality and the (Re)making of Chinese Masculinities in the United States”
The International Conference on Masculinities: Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality, New York
2014 / ““North American Despicable Man”: Race, Class, Sexuality and the (Re)making of Chinese Masculinities in the United States”
Translating Chinese Masculinities Conference: Chinese Men in Global Contexts, Hong Kong, China
2014 / “What is Filial Piety? Anti-Parent Sentiments and New Media in Aging China”
Old Values and New Meanings: Social and Political Transformations in Asia Hofstra University, NY
2013 / “Gnawing the Elderly Or Gnawing the Youth: An Analysis of the Crisis of Adulthood in Aging China.”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2013 / “Masculinity, Social Organization, and Post-socialist Nostalgia in China”
The First Symposium of Anthropological Studies on Southwest China, China
2012 / “ ‘Parents are Poison’: Moral Governmentality, Social Networking, and Anti-Parents Sentiments in Post-reform China”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2012 / “Youth Culture, Labor Politics, and New Idealism in China”
The 20th Annual Symposium of SOYUZ, University of Michigan
2011 / “Valuable Workers, Valuable Men: Gender Strategies of Rural Migrant Men in China”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2010 / “When Wives Earn As Much As Husbands: Gender, Family, and Work in Southwest China.”
Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies
2010 / “One Life For Sale: Charitable Activities, Affect Labor, and New Form of Work in China”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2010 / “One Life For Sale: Youth Culture, Labor Politics, and New Form of Work in China”
Seminar on Youth, Labor, and Neoliberal Governmentality in East Asia, University of Pittsburgh
2009 / “Grassroots Art, Value Transactions, and Postpolitics: The Case of A Rural Migrant Worker’s Art Exhibit in Southwest China.”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2008 / “Narratives, Value Transactions, and The success Story of a Rural Migrant worker in China.”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2008 / “Ziyou (Freedom), Maybe Too Much Ziyou: the Occupational Choice of Shoulder-pole Porters in Chongqing, China.”
American Historical Association Annual Conference
2007 / “Ziyou (Freedom), Occupational Choice, and Labor: Bangbang in Chongqing, P.R.China.”
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference
2005 / “Fragmented Self But Stronger Man: Chinese Migrant Men in Australia.”
Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies
2005 / “Labor, Masculinity and History: the Bangbang in Chongqing, P.R.China”
The Sixth Annual Graduate symposium on Women’s and Gender History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
INVITED LECTURES AND TALKS
2016 / “The People’s Commune is Good”: Informal Labor, Social Organization and Post-Socialist Nostalgia of Rural Migrant Workers in Southwest ChinaPSU-China Innovations in Urbanization Program; Portland State University
2016 / “North American Despicable Man”:Race, Class, and the (Re)making of Chinese Masculinities in the United States
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
2014 / “North American WSN: Well-educated Chinese Immigrant Men in the US”
Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
2013
June / “One Life for Sale: Youth Culture, Labor Politics, and New Idealism in China”
PSU-China Innovationsin Urbanization Program; Portland State University
2012
June / “Youth Unemployment Crisis and Higher Education in China: From Anthropological Perspective”
Department of Chinese, Sichuan Foreign Language University, China
2011
May / “Carrying Out Modernity: Migration, Work, and Masculinity in China”
Department of Geography, University of Washington.
2008
May / “Generational Changes in China: the Case of the Shoulder-Pole Porters”
Japan’s Changing Generations,
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington
2006
May / “Labor, Migration, and Masculinity: the Bangbang Men in Chongqing”
Rural-Urban Encounter in China,
Department of Anthropology, University of Washington
2006
July / “Anthropological Studies in a Changing China”
Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Chinese Folklore
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
2004
August / “Being a Man is Hard: Labor, Migration and Masculinity in Chongqing”
Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Chinese Folklore
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
FIELD RESEARCH EXPERIENCES
2015Summer / Field research (Parent-Child Relationship of Chinese College Students with Rural or Urban Poor Backgroundsin Southwest China)
Chongqing, China
2013
Summer / Field research (New Media, Youth Identity, and the Cultural Meaning of Adulthood)
Beijing and Chongqing, China
2012
Summer / Field research (New Media, Youth Unemployment, and the Innovation Industry; Masculinity, Migration, and Bangbang Artist in China)
Beijing and Chongqing, China
2011
Winter / Field research (New Media, Youth Culture, and the Innovation Industry in China)
Beijing and Chongqing, China
2006-2007 / Dissertation field research
Chongqing, China
2004
May - August / Preliminary dissertation research
Chongqing, China
2004
June / Fieldwork Assistant to Professor Nicole Constable
“Marriage and Bridal Photography in Beijing.”
2002
July / Fieldwork Assistant to Professor Nicole Constable
“Marriage and Bridal Photography in Beijing.”
2001
July - August / Field research on performance of myth-telling in China
Gongnong Village, Chongqing, China
2001
January–February / Field research on life histories of Chinese folk story tellers
Gongnog Village, Chongqing, China
2000
July - August / Field research on performance of myth-telling in China
Gongning Village, Chongqing, China
2000
January-February / Field research on religious rituals in Miao ethnic minority community
Chongqing, China
LANGUAGE SKILLS
English / Fluency in speaking, reading, and writingChinese (mandarin) / Native Fluency
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Association for Asian Studies;
American Anthropological Association;
Society for East Asian Anthropology;
Society for Feminist Anthropology
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