Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
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Yanshuo Zhang
Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies - Program in Writing and Rhetoric
BioI received my Ph.D. in Chinese Literature and Culture from Stanford University in 2018. Prior to that, I obtained my BA in English and French (summa cum laude) from St. Catherine University in Minnesota. An interdisciplinary and multicultural scholar and teacher, I research about modern Chinese literature and culture, particularly their intersections with historical questions and anthropological methodologies. My dissertation is titled "Beyond Minority: Ethnicity, Modernity, and the Invention of the Qiang Identity in China." As a winner of two prestigious awards, my dissertation looks into how ethnic minority literatures and cultures help diversify our understanding of China and "Chinese-ness" in various literary, historiographical, and ethnographical forms. My research broadly addresses how the Chinese minority experience enhances the scholarly understanding of global indigenous cultures: minority and indigenous groups are eagerly re-making their identities and claiming their cultural rights against the trends of homogenization and industrialization plaguing global modernity.
My teaching interests are in line with my research passions: I design and teach courses with a cross-cultural emphasis and comparative components, such as the PWR seminar "Rhetoric of Beauty Across Cultures." It is my goal to help educate a new generation of students who are truly global citizens capable of embracing different cultures and articulating racial, ethnic, and personal diversities for a more just society. I aspire to help bring forth a better global world with my research, teaching, and creative work, which fuel me intellectually and personally.
In addition to scholarship and teaching, I am a twice-published creative writer with two collections of short stories, poetry, and essays published. I have also founded a public service organization, Stanford Youth Cultural Exchange Initiative. As the founding president of this organization, I led many events and programs to serve the multicultural youth and multiracial families in California and beyond. My public service endeavors have been awarded a Special Congressional Recognition for Outstanding and Invaluable Service to the Community and the Asian American Women's Leadership Award.
Two of my Autumn 2018 students, two freshmen at Stanford, will be publishing their research papers from my class at a prestigious national journal called Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Issues and Media. Another student from my Autumn 2018 seminar "Rhetoric of Beauty Across Cultures" had her research paper selected as a finalist at Stanford's Boothe Prize for Excellence in First-year Writing. -
Chenshu Zhou
Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies - Thinking Matters
BioChenshu Zhou is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Thinking Matters program. She received her PhD in Chinese from Stanford in 2016. Prior to that she received her BA from the University of Hong Kong and her MA in Comparative Literature from UC Riverside (2010). Chenshu specializes in modern Chinese literature, film, and culture. Her research has been funded by a Mellon Dissertation Fellowship through the Stanford Humanities Center. She is currently working on a book manuscript based on her dissertation which re-examines Chinese socialism through the practice of moviegoing in the Maoist period (1949-1976). Her article on the role played by film projectionists in the culture of the newly established People's Republic of China in the 1950s and 60s was recently published by the Journal of Chinese Cinemas.
She has taught courses in film, literature and cultural history as well as Chinese language classes at UC Riverside and Stanford. As Thinking Matter lecturer, she teaches "Stories Everywhere," "China through Films," and "Food Talks." She is excited about helping students become better thinkers through the engagement with diverse texts, genres, and cultures. As a pop culture junkie, she also believes that one can think intellectually and meaningfully about anything that interests us, big or small.
