Home

I am an anthropologist and media scholar. I work as an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research lies in the intersection among global communication, technology, and culture. I specialize in the anthropology of Islam, race & ethnicity, gender and feminist studies, and digital studies such as online forums and podcasts. At its core, my scholarship attends to how communities make their own voices heard and how we imagine more creative, hopeful futures through interdisciplinary approaches. 

Currently, I am writing a book which centers around resilient Muslim publics in a Muslim-minority context. I have published in peer-reviewed journals such as New Media and Society, Made In China Journal, Media Theory, Feminist Anthropology, Asian Anthropology, Journal of Contemporary East Asia, Terrain: Anthropologie & Sciences Humaines, and Journal of Transformative Learning. Moving forward, my research projects include (1) diasporic media in the global context; (2) inter-Asian flows of feminist ideas; (3) women's health and media.  

Meanwhile, I love exploring ideas beyond academic publication. My translated book Walter Benjamin's Grave 本雅明之墓(authored by Michael Taussig) was published by Peking University Press. In 2020, I co-founded TyingKnots 结绳志, an independent, non-profit, volunteer-based group committed to breaking down walls between academia, media, and the public through translation projects and the promotion of public-facing scholarship. From September 2022 to July 2023, I co-founded and produced the Global Media & Communication podcast series as part of the multimodal project powered by the Center of Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) at Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. My commentaries, essays, and podcast interviews feature in academic and public media outlets such as Anthropology News, Pop Junctions, Today's Totalitarianism, Asian Review of Books, Initium, Inkstone, CNpolitics, Oriental History Review, TyingKnots, among others. 

 ORCID |Google Scholar| UW-Madison