Tao Zhang

Zhang, T. (accepted). Seeking the “Us” in Our Othernesses: Decolonizing the Understanding of Chinese-ness(es) Through Lenses of Transnationalism and Thick(er) Intersectionalities. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. (Provisionally accepted Nov. 3rd, 2025, with minor final edits)

Zhang, T. (in press). A Dialogue That Had Never Been Made (tentative title). Journal of Autoethnography. (Accepted July 25, 2025)

Manuscript in Progress:

Zhang, T., Bao, H., & Daddaoui, B. (being polished for submission). Between Homes. On the Borders: A Collaborative Autoethnography on (un)Freedom and Identity.
( Collaborated project with two DKU UG students. Manuscript completed May 2025)

Zhang, T. (in progress). The GPT Doesn't Chat: AI and Critical Communication Pedagogy. (Manuscript under development)

Research Projects In Progress:

The Imagined and The Lived: Re/Naming, Tourism, and the Identity Performance of Shangri-La Tibetans. IRB approved & data collected in Summer 2024

A Comparative Study of the Linguistic Landscapes in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Kunming. IRB approved, and data collection by the end of 2025

Citizens on the Borders: Intercultural Communication as Everyday Life. IRB approved, and data collection in Summer 2026 & 2027. Won DKU Faculty Scholarship and Travel Grant AY25/26.

Fellowships, Gifts, and Supported Research

Faculty Scholarship and Travel Grant (AY 25/26) · July 2025 - June 2026 Awarded by: Duke Kunshan University · $5,800.00 This grant will support one of Zhang's research projects titled "Citizens on the Borders: Intercultural Communication as Everyday Life." The purpose of the study is to achieve an ethnographic understanding of the lives of Chinese ethnic minorities on the southern and northern national borders in Yunnan and Dongbei. The primary methods are in-depth interviews and on-site participant observation. This project is inspired by Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands Scholarship. Her signature work in Borderlands Scholarship is autohistoria-teorias, which explores self knowledge, self ignorance, and practices of knowing others. The borderland is an interstitial and in-between space where people and cultures meet. It is also one of Zhang's research focuses on intercultural communication and identity studies. As a local of Yunnan, the fascinating ethnic diversity and minority cultures there continue to capture Zhang's scholarly curiosity. We have heard stories about border walls around the world that draw lines between the wealthy and the poor and between the powerful and the powerless. But we don’t know much about the border ecologies around here in the minority regions of China. Thus, this project aims to document the lives of citizens living on the borders as subjects who make meanings and effect changes, rather than being romanticized objects through media and tourist gazes. This project will contribute to the (critical) intercultural communication scholarship by exploring the lives and epistemologies of citizens across China-Southeast Asia and China-Korea/Russia/Mongolia national borders and margins of China. The collected data will result in peer-reviewed articles that prioritize the life stories and epistemologies of Chinese minorities. The project will also contribute to Zhang's new course planning, including, but not limited to, “Understanding China through the Minority Lenses.”

Canvas Jump Start Grant · September 2023 - June 2024 Awarded by: DKU CTL · $300.00

2021-2022 Research Fellow of the Center for Intersectional Gender and Studies Research · October 2021 - May 2022 Awarded by: Utah State University · $1,500.00 The Research Fellows Program is designed to support research or creative activities in the field of intersectional gender studies. The Research Fellow will receive a Research Innovations Grant in the amount of $1,500 to support their work. Zhang won this fellowship for the research proposal on the performance of transnational Chinese womanhood in the U.S.

Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) 2020 Research & Creative Activities Award · March 2020 - June 2021 Awarded by: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale · $1,500.00 Zhang won this award for her doctoral dissertation proposal titled "The Necessity and Possibility of Decolonizing the Understanding of Chineseness." The GPSC Award is an annual award issued by SIUC to the top 3 graduate research projects of the year across the campus.