Zhangzhu 掌珠 Wan 万 (she/her)
Areas of Interest
- Transnational Feminism
- Geographical Politics
- Infrastructures of Intimacy
- Queer Kinship
Biography
Zhangzhu Wan was born and raised in Nanchang, China, and moved to the U.S. at 14. She completed her B.A. and M.A. in Women’s Studies at the George Washington University, with minors in sociology and psychology and a concentration in public policy. Her doctoral research examines the rise of all-female economic centers in China—such as beauty salons, bars, and female-only homestays (FOHs)—as spaces of feminine queer world-making shaped by digital infrastructures and land politics. Focusing on FOHs in Dali, she explores how these “women’s utopias” cultivate temporal kinships among women while revealing the intersections of gendered labor, digital culture, and feminist activism.
Program: PhD 2024
Education
MA, Public Policy with a Concentration in Women’s Studies, The George Washington University
BA, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The George Washington University
Dissertation
Supervisor: Shana Ye
Presentations
National Women’s Studies Association Conference Baltimore, MD Panel Presenter October 27th, 2023
• Presented the paper “The Online Self-Representation of Lesbian Family Reproduction in China” under the panel “Reformers, Activists, Queer Feminists: Chinese Feminist Resilience from Early Modern to Contemporary China.”
Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Research Showcase Washington, DC Individual Presenter April 11, 2023
• Presented a senior capstone and independently researched findings on Chinese lesbian parents’ self-representation on social media under the influence of state censorship on queer content.
GW University Writing and Research Conference Virtual Student Presenter October 15, 2020
• Chosen by GWU writing professor to be included in a select group of students who presented at the conference.
• Presented on the significance, impact, & research of the One-Child policy, IUD, & Chinese women’s agency for 15 minutes based on a 20-page research paper. This presentation included a Q&A session with attendees.
Selected Works
“Life of a Theory: Chinese Women’s Blood as a Source of Power and Pollution,” Feminist Spaces, August 2023, Issue 9, https://www.feministspacesjournal.org/issues.
Honours and Awards
Distinguished Scholar Award Nomination, The George Washington University; Nominated by the GW WGSS program faculties as the WGSS representative to be considered for The Distinguished Scholar Award for excelling in either academic research scholarship, academic leadership, significant out-of-class or off-campus activity related to an academic field, or significant contributions to the growth and improvement of their department, school, or the university.
Service to Community of Women Award, The George Washington University; This award acknowledges the activism of a WGSS student at GW who engaged in activism as either an undergraduate or master’s student.
Banner Bearer of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University; This is an honor given to an exemplary graduating student who serves as a representative of the college, carries the college’s banner, and gets addressed by the provost at the GW commencement ceremony on the National Mall.