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Social Sciences Division
Sociology Department
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Faculty
Regular Faculty
Labor and Social Movements
Digital Media
Video Games, Game Design, Game Studies
Gender Studies
China
Rachel Carson College Academic Building
320
by appointment
Rachel Carson College Faculty Services
Mengyang (Zoe) Zhao is an activist scholar specializing in the intersections of technology, work, and social movements in a global context. Their current book project delves into platform-based video game services in China. Their art practice leverages gamification to reimagine ways of commoning and queering the care infrastructure.
I am an interdisciplinary researcher, writer, and artivist of technology, video games, and work in the global context.
Labor, Social Movements, Digital Media, Game Studies, Diaspora, Global China
Platform Economy; Technology and Work; Media Activism
2026 Hellman Fellowship, UC Santa Cruz
2025 UC Underrepresented Scholars Fellowship, University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI)
2025 Flexible Early Career Fellowship, Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies
2025 Catalyze Seed Award, Institute for Social Transformation, UC Santa Cruz
2024 Faculty Research Grant, Center for Labor and Community, UC Santa Cruz
2024 Dissertation Award, Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS), National Communication Association
2024 Outstanding Dissertation Award, Activism, Communication, and Social Justice (ACSJ) Interest Group, International Communication Association
2021-2023 The Center on Digital Culture and Society (CDCS) Doctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
2022-2023 SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2022-2023 Dissertation Fellowship, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, declined
2023 SASgov Discretionary Funding, University of Pennsylvania, honored as the co-founder of Penn Activism, Media and Education Group
2017-2022 Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2023 GAPSA Universal Fund, University of Pennsylvania, honored as the co-founder of Penn Activism, Media and Education Group
2021 Mr. Chi-Chung Yu Award, China Times Cultural Foundation
2021 The OYCF-Chow Fellowship for Field Research, The Overseas Young Chinese Forum
2021 Emerging Sci-Tech Artist Awards, Raiden INST, honored as a member of Liquid Dependencies Theory Collective
2020-2021 Gertrude and Otto Pollak Summer Research Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2019 Predissertation Travel Grants, The American Council of Learned Societies
2024 Exhibition: “Unbound” at Wu Ju Contemporary Art Center, Guiyang, as member of Liquid Dependencies Theory
2023 Exhibition and Book Contributor: “Care Manifesto” at Care Pavilion at London Design Biennale, https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/551466/care-manifesto/
2023 Exhibition: “Unruly Kinships” at Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany, as member of Liquid Dependencies Theory
2021 Exhibition: “Do Not Black Out” at Shanghai Ming Contemporary Art Museum, as member of Liquid Dependencies Theory
2021 “Unknown Games” at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, as member of Liquid Dependencies Theory
Zhao, Mengyang (Zoe), and Huixin Tian. 2025. “Multiple Positionalities, Plural Movements: A Feminist and Queer Interrogation of Sinophone Diaspora Activism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 27(4):882–907. doi:10.1080/14616742.2025.2548402.
Zhao, Mengyang. 2025. “‘Ready Worker Two’: Gendered Labor Regime of Platform-Based Game Work in China.” New Media & Society 27(6):3293–3313. doi: 10.1177/14614448231222944.
Zhao, Mengyang, and anosartor. 2024. “Ghost in Dissent: Artifacts and the Architecture of Activism in Digital China.” International Journal of Communication 18(0):5673–93.
Zhao, Mengyang. 2023. “Fragmented Control of Platform Game Work in China.” The Economic and Labour Relations Review 34(2):328–42. doi: 10.1017/elr.2023.15.
Zhao, Mengyang, and Kecheng Fang. 2023. “Extending the Research on Digital China: The Transnational Lens.” Information, Communication & Society 26(2):270–85. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2159487.
Zhao, Mengyang. 2021. “Solidarity Stalled: When Chinese Activists Meet Social Movements in Democracies.” Critical Sociology 47(2):281–97. doi: 10.1177/0896920520940007.
Zhao, Mengyang. 2020. “Chinese Diaspora Activism and the Future of International Solidarity.” Made in China Journal 5(2): 97-101.
Zhao, Mengyang. 2019. “Media Freedom and Protest Events in the Global South.” Social Science Quarterly 100(4):1254–67. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12635.
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