current-phd-students

Xun Zheng

Xun Zheng

Field: Japanese Film and Media
Advisor: Takuya Tsunoda
Email: xz2768@columbia.edu

Xun Zheng is a PhD student in Japanese film and media. Her research interest focuses on early television and media theories in postwar Japan, which she seeks as a prism to explore the textuality of media experience and the political/ethical implications of broadcasting techniques in the 1960s. Her other interests include Japanese modernist discourse on media and mediation, information studies in Japan, and the history of Chinese television. Prior to joining Columbia for PhD, she received her B.A. from Oberlin College and M.A. from Columbia EALAC.

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Fran Zhao

Fran Zhao

Field: Chinese Theater
Advisor: Wei Shang
Email: f.zhao@columbia.edu

Fran Zhao is a PhD candidate in Chinese Theater. Her research focuses on early Ming court theater and its historical context.

She has taught topics in Chinese history, religion, and visual culture, and has contributed illustrations and maps to academic publications.

Education:

BSocSci, Geography – NUS

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Iris Zhang

Iris Zhang

Field: East Asian Religion
Advisor: Michael Como
Email: iris.zhang@columbia.edu

Iris Zhang is a PhD candidate in premodern Japanese religions. With an interest in the interplay between speech acts and religious rituals, her research project focuses on the use of chanting practices in late Heian Japan. In her dissertation, she analyzes how lay people perceived ritually formatted language as efficacious and how chanting practices were integrated in the quotidian life of the populace. Her second ongoing project is an extension of her M.A. thesis, which examines the deification of Murasaki Shikibu at Ishiyama Temple near Kyoto, Japan. Iris received her B.A. in Economics with a minor in East Asian Studies from University of California, Los Angeles and her M.A. in EALAC at Columbia before joining the PhD program.