Research Experience and Education
2018 – 2024
PhD in Sociology and Digital Culture
2017– 2018
Department of Education, Practice and Society, Institute of Education, University College London
MA Education (with Distinction)
2013 – 2017
Department of Culture, Communication and Media, Institute of Education, University College London
BA English Language and Literature
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China
Selected Publication
Zuo, Z. (2024). Book Chapter: Teaching Love and Relationship in the Times of Uncertainty, in Bustillos, J.(eds.). Routledge Handbook of Gender and School Politics, Routledge. DOI:10.4324/9781003397502
Zuo, Z. (2025). "I'm Not a Feminist, But…": Exploring ‘Intra-actioning’ Construction of ‘the Feminist’ among Chinese Youth, Postdigital Science and Education (Special Issue). DOI:10.1007/s42438-025-00608-2
Zuo, Z. (Under Review). “I Don’t Want to Be Famous”: A New Materialist Study of Digital Classrooms in Sexuality Education in Chinese Universities. Gender and Education (Special Issue: Gender, Sexuality and Education in Chinese Contexts) – Full manuscript invited after competitive abstract selection.
Zuo, Z. (Under Review). “To Share or Not to Share”: Exploring Affective Aesthetics in Chinese Youth Practices of Intimacies in Everyday Lives. Media, Culture & Society (article submitted).
Zuo, Z. (manuscript in preparation). Becoming desiring subjects: Chinese youth’s navigation of everyday intimacies.
Selected Talks and Public Engagement
Synthetic Imaginaries: the Cultural Politics of Generative AI, University of Siegen, Germen
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Love, Sexuality, Machine — a Posthumanist Re-imagination of ‘Flirting’ in (Post)digital Intimacies in the Age of AI
Digital Intimacies, Young People and Everyday Life, University of Padova, Italy
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Affective aesthetics: a Posthumanist Exploration on Youth Digital Intimacies
ATGENDER European Feminist Research Conference on ’Contemporary Feminist Liberation Struggles: Bodies, Borders, and Intersections’, Barcelona, Spain
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Presentation: Compressed (post-)feminism: Affective Intra-action of the Feminist Label Among Chinese Youth
International Gender and Education Association (GEA) Conference, Manchester
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Presentation: Exploring ‘Intra-actioning’ Construction of ‘the Feminist’ among Chinese Youth’
SOAS-Tsinghua Online Symposium: Virtual Spaces and New Horizons: Humanities in the Digital Age
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Presentation: (Im)mobility and Affective Aesthetics: Exploring Chinese Youth Mediated Intimacies’
Central China Normal University (CCNU): International Forum for Early-year Scholars [in Chinese], Wuhan, Hubei, China
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Presentation: (Im)mobility and Affective Aesthetics: A Posthuman Exploration of Chinese Youth Mediated Intimacies’
Global Digital Intimacies Conference, Amsterdam
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Presentation: ‘In Bed with Calls’: (Im)mobility and Mediated Intimacy among Chinese Youth during the Pandemic”