Zoe Zhao, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Receives Young Scholar Award

Mengyang (Zoe) Zhao, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and a doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication’s Center on Digital Culture and Society (CDCS), is one of 10 recipients of the China Times Cultural Foundation Young Scholars Award, in recognition of her dissertation research on platform game work in China.

Established in 1986, the China Times Cultural Foundation is committed to supporting and promoting academic research that centers Chinese culture and related studies. The Young Scholar Award is granted annually to doctoral candidates in North America whose dissertation research focuses on the study of Chinese cultures in the humanities and the social sciences. This year’s award committee was comprised of seven prominent China scholars, including David Der-wei Wang of Harvard University and Wen-hsin Yeh of the University of California Berkeley.

Zhao’s research interests include social movements, urban sociology, public opinion, and social network analysis. She has been published in Critical Sociology and Social Science Quarterly. She is a frequent commentator on contemporary social issues for media outlets such as the U.S.-based Protocol and the Singapore-based Initium Media. As a CDCS doctoral fellow, she helps to lead a CDCS working group on platform studies and digital labor.

As a recipient of the Young Scholar Award, Zhao will receive a scholarship of $10,000 to support her dissertation research.