Dr. Zhan Zhang joined the School of International Communication, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Nottingham Ningbo China in September 2023. She is currently an assistant professor in International Communication.

She came from a media professional background, working for both Chinese and European media organizations. She received her PhD degree in Communication Sciences at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI, Switzerland) in 2015, and carried out her PostDoc project at Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism of the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles in 2016 and 2017, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Since 2017, she has been working as a full-time researcher and lecturer for the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) before joining UNNC.

She is the co-founder and international director of Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies Doctoral Summer School since 2014, targeting to improve and enhance academic & cultural exchange in media, communication, and culture studies between Europe and China.

She has published various journal articles and book chapters with a mix of research methods to decode news content, policy papers, and industrial reports from different European countries and China to understand the complexity of rhetorical power, strategic communication, and intercultural communication in the context of geopolitical uncertainties and communication technology advancement. 

Research Interests:

• Media (narrative/discourse) Analysis;
• Strategic Communication;
• Intercultural Communication;
• Technology & Society;
• China’s Soft Power in Europe.