Post Doctoral Fellow
Zhuozhang is an urban scholar in everyday spatial politics and urban cinematic representations. He is currently a Post Doctoral Teaching Fellow (city and cinema) at the Canterbury School of Architecture and Design, UCA.
Bio
Zhuozhang completed his PhD in Architecture (2021) at the Centre for Architecture and the Visual Arts (CAVA), University of Liverpool. His research is established at the intersection of urban studies, visual cultural studies and critical theories. In 2016, he graduated with an MA (Distinction) in Urban Design at the University of Sheffield, and completed a BEng in Urban Planning at the Northwest University (China) with a First Class Scholarship in 2014. Prior to joining UCA in 2022, he has delivered lectures, tutorials, studio critics and workshops at several places including Liverpool School of Architecture, Sheffield School of Architecture, Hong Kong Academy of Film, Bauhaus (Dessau), Beijing Institute of Technology and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Alongside research and teaching, his recent curatorial and/or artistic practice includes ‘Traces under the Surface (Beijing, 2022)’, ‘Entre las Flores (Granada, 2022)’, ‘Edge Hill: A Shifting Model of Publicness (Metal Culture UK, 2022)’, and ‘Knowledge is Power (Tate Liverpool, 2020)’. Currently, he is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool.
Research statement
Zhuozhang’s doctoral thesis ‘The Fluid City: A Cinematic Urban Tectonic Study on the (Re)Production of Publicness in Contemporary Hong Kong’ investigates the socio-spatial production of everyday urban space in Hong Kong in the past four decades through the lens of urban cinema, to map out the overlooked spatial practices of local residents. By conducting a comparative case study of 28 city films and a longitudinal study on three different types of architectural/urban spaces (rooftop, elevated passageway and street) in the city, the thesis reveals a hidden thread as a local discourse of resistance and negotiation that accommodates multiple groups of people in the city within its specific cultural, social and political contexts.
Professional Membership, Affiliation and Consultancy
- Member, Architecture Sans Frontieres UK (ASF-UK)
- Member, Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA)
- Associate Fellowship, Royal Geographical Society (RGS)
- Member, British Association for Chinese Studies
- 2023, Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Architecture and the Visual Arts, University of Liverpool
- 2022, Researcher/Artist in Residence Funds, Metal Culture UK
- 2018-2020 Research Support Funds, School of the Arts, University of Liverpool
- 2018, LAHP Bursary, London Arts and Humanities Partnership
- 2016-2020, Joint PhD Fellowship, University of Liverpool & China Scholarship Council
- 2016, 50th Anniversary Alumni Prize, Sheffield School of Architecture