Faculty Associate
tracyyzh[at]yorku.ca
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication & Media Studies, York University
Research Keywords:
Labour and cultural industries; intersectional Feminisms; cultural policy studies; global politics and cultural economy; media and performance; minority cultural productions; live entertainment in transnational China; Sino-Tibetan cultural politics
Research Region(s):
China, East Asia, Tibet
Research Diaspora(s):
Asian Diaspora
Dr. Tracy Ying Zhang is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University. Tracy’s interdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching are informed by intersectional feminist perspectives, postcolonial theories, and critical political economy analyses. Her first major research is an ethnographic and historical study of Tibetan artisanal labour in Lhasa. Her second and ongoing project uses “Chinese acrobatics” as an entry point to investigate the body as both a subject of labour and a cultural medium in the processes of nation-state building, international diplomacy and cultural trade. Her research results appeared in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, The International Journal of Cultural Policy, The Journal of Early Popular Visual Culture, The Journal of International Labor and Working-Class History, and The Journal of Material Culture.
Tracy also directed and co-produced several independent films, including ‘The Flip Side: A Global Circus Story’ (she was co-producer). This film won the best short documentary at the Disorient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon. Drawing from her production experiences, Tracy is currently developing a new research project that explores the politics of gender, race and body in the making of occupational space on film sets.