WGST welcomes Dr. Yan Zhao

Dr. Yan Zhao is a visiting scholar this fall with Women and Gender’s Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Though she was born and grew up in China, Dr. Zhao’s academic career has developed mainly from Norway. She holds a PhD in Sociology and is Associate Professor in Social Work at Nord University. Zhao is also the program head of the Master’s program in Social Sciences at her home institution. The subjects she teaches include: social work theories, qualitative methods, intercultural competence in social work, welfare states and social politics, and community work from an international perspective.

Dr. Zhao’s research focuses on migration studies, gender studies, adoption studies, race and ethnic relations, and welfare research. She is currently working with several projects, including one that focuses on migration and health, and one that looks at the effects of transnational knowledge positions in social work education. She has theoretical interests in feminist, postcolonial and Actor Network Theories (ANT). She is associate editor of the Journal of Comparative Social Work, and a member of the working group on ethnic diversity in Norwegian academies, appointed by the Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions.

Dr. Zhao is engaged in several international collaborations with scholars in China, Canada, and South Africa, as well as in other Nordic countries. She is a committee member for the Sino-Nordic Women and Gender Research Conference, and member of International Academic Committee of ELLTA: Exploring Leadership and Learning Theories in Asia.

During her visiting professorship at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Zhao will work closely with Dr. Marie Lovrod in Women and Gender’s Studies. Their planned activities include: 1) developing a research grant/application for a project that sheds light on conceptions and practices of care and “stretched family relations” as shaped by (trans)national migrations, 2) co-publishing an article that explores the processes of co-positioning for collaborative knowledge production in transnational feminist scholarship; 3) supporting the emergence of relevant regional and international research networks around these research themes; and 4) explore possibilities for further collaborations between the two institutions, including : through the UArctic consortium of which both universities are members; in Women’s and Gender studies; migration studies; and sociology. Dr. Zhao will provide guest lectures in the graduate transnational feminisms class and in collaboration with our colleagues at the University of Regina.