Melody Zhang

Melody is a PhD candidate at the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. Her academic interests focus on international cultural studies. Before joining UoM, She conducted master's research on the postcolonial representation of touristic guidebooks (specifically, Lonely Planet) at the University of Leeds. Currently, under the supervision of Prof Andrew Miles and Dr Wendy Bottero, her research concerns the factors affecting the social mobility of 'left-behind’ children in China.

Her research explores the relationship between cultural capital and social stratification, as well as the role of parenting (and/or family background) in the cultural engagement of left-behind children. Thus, Her research delves into topics in cultural sociology and education. Apart from her main focuses, she is also interested in social movement, representation of inequality in the media, and postcolonialism studies.

As a member of an ethnic minority community (specifically, Bai-Chinese), I am also interested in the representation of ethnic minorities on screen, particularly with regard to issues of Orientalism and racism.

menglu.zhang@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

The Best Editor Award of The Forth Media Academy of Harbin Normal University Magazine Competition, June 2018 

The Second-class scholarship of Harbin Normal University, June 2019