Lennon Zhang

Dreamed to be a marine biologist but discovered the closest thing is anthropology, Lennon Zhang traverses different research areas and topics. In the present moment, he is interested in multispecies anthropology, infrastructure studies, and the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) in Latin America. Question on how different infrastructures build by different life forms (including humans) come to be conflictual or constitutive with each other’s, he is interested in synchronizing politics and ecologies in the Anthropocene. A classical vitalist by heart and a generalist in spirit, he enjoys projects like situating science fiction as extension of human life and politics, investigating sexual and cannibalistic interactions of sea slugs Hermissenda crassicornis and Hermissenda opalescens, or figuring out transcendental imagery of animals and nature (project TINA) in Lincoln Park Zoo.

Publications

2022, The Politics of Truth in China: Ontological-Ethical Dimensions of Science and Science Fiction, Issues in Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy. Online access: https://jsfphil.org/volume-5-2022/zhang-the-politics-of-truth-in-china/

Degrees and Education

MA, Sociocultural Anthropology, Master of Art in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (MAPSS), The University of Chicago (2019)
BS, Biological Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, University of California at Davis (2018)
 

Awards

Chancellor's Graduate Fellowship in China and Chinese Studies, University of Pittsburgh (2022-2023)
University Scholarship, University of Chicago (2018-2019)

Anthropology Departmental Citation, University of California at Davis (2018)

Research Presenter at Undergraduate Research Conference, University of California, Davis (2018)

Research Description

Science and Technology Studies, Infrastructure Studies, Vitality, Multispecies, Charisma and Power, the Anthropocene, Anthropology and Philosophy, China & Latin America.