Academic Background 

I am Assistant Professor of psychology at the American University of Paris. My university profile: https://www.aup.edu/profile/zgao

I have an interdisciplinary academic background, with a PhD in historical, theoretical and critical studies of psychology followed by postdoctoral research in sociology and anthropology. 

Research Expertise 

I currently write about how Chinese immigrants’ political participation is mediated by identity and belonging. My other research trajectory is concerned with the history of psychology in Chinese communism. Using China/Chinese as the empirical basis, I explore the theoretical frameworks of transnationalism and cultural politics in understanding globalization. In the meantime, I am interested in the philosophy of sicence; I have been slowly chanelling continental philosophy into reflections on social epistemology and qualitative methodology. 

I published over 20 journal articles and book chapters. My works can be found in Review of General Psychology, Theory & Psychology, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Social Anthropology, Narrative Inquiry, History of Psychology, History of Science, etc. I also edited special issues of journal Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science (Springer) and journal Theory & Psychology (Sage). See my "Research" page and Google Scholar for more details. 

Awards 

Distinguished Early Career Contributions in Qualitative Inquiry Award, Quantitative and Qualitative Methods, Division 5 of the American Psychological Association, 2022

Early Career Award, Society for the History of Psychology, Division 26 of the American Psychological Association, 2022

Outstanding Early Career Psychologist Award (outside the US), International Psychology, Division 52 of American Psychological Association, 2020

Young Scholar Award, Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2019

Certificate of Academic Excellence, Canadian Psychological Association, 2019

Contact: zgao <at> aup.edu