Research Area(s)
- Cultural Sociology
- Sociological Theory
- Civility, Manners, Etiquette
- Self and Society
- Everyday Life and Morality
- Films
Publications
- Zhao, Y. (2022). A Portrait of the Modern Butler as an Emergent Professional Type in Mainland China, Comparative Sociology, 21(5), 536-560. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15691330-bja10066
- Zhao, Y. (2021). Book Review: Unending Capitalism: How Consumerism Negated China’s Communist Revolution by Karl Gerth. China Information, 35(3), 456-457. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X211051055l
- Zhao, Y. (2019). Crazy Rich Asians: When Representation Becomes Controversial, Markets, Globalization & Development Review, 4(3), Article 3. doi: 10.23860/MGDR-2019-04-03-03. Available at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol4/iss3/3
Select Recent Conferences and Presentations:
- “The Self in Time Revisited: A Narrative Analysis of Biographical Accounts on Living with Chronic Autoimmune Illness” (2023) (with Michael Nijhawan and Nishan Kaushall), Canadian Sociological Association Conference, Toronto, Canada
- “Symbolic Violence and Its Sublimation in State-led Civilizing Initiatives” (2022), Violence and Its Sublimation Within the Fantasy-Reality Continuum: Between Psychoanalysis and the Theory of Civilizing Process Workshop, Warsaw, Poland
- “The Expert of Self-Betterment: Cultural Re-embedding in the Commercial Market” (2022), Annual Conference of the International Social Theory Consortium, Virtual
- “Embodying Civility Towards Citizenry” (2022), Canadian Sociological Association Conference, Virtual
- “Etiquette as Culturally-Bifurcated Commodity in Today’s China” (2021), IV International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology, Virtual/Brazil
- “Digital Sociology and Sociology of the Digital” (2019) (with Fuyuki Kurasawa, Elisabeth Rondinelli, Gulay Kilicaslan), Graduate Students Workshop in Sociology, York University, Toronto, Canada
- "Global Digital Citizenship Lab Presentation” (2017) (with Fuyuki Kurasawa and as a GDCL graduate fellow), Parliament Hill Pop-Up Research Park, Ottawa, Canada
- “Towards Analytically Critical Theories of Consumer Cultures” (2016), Canadian Sociological Association Conference - Symposium for Early Career Theorists, Calgary, Canada
- “Come to Terms with Displaced Memory through Consumption” (2013), Canadian Sociological Association Conference, Victoria, Canada
- “Between Citizens and Consumers: The Perspective of the Polity Model” (2012), Politics of Consumption Conference, Dublin, Ireland
Teaching & Supervision
Fall 2024 Courses:
SOC 111.3 Foundations in Sociology: Society Structure Process
SOC 112.3 Foundations in Sociology: Social Construction of Everyday Life
Winter 2025 Courses:
SOC 111.3 Foundations in Sociology: Society Structure Process
SOC 112.3 Foundations in Sociology: Social Construction of Everyday Life
Spring 2025 Course:
SOC 233.3 Introduction to Sociological Theory
Research
Education & Training
Ph.D. in Sociology, York University (Nominated for the Department of Sociology’s 2022 Dissertation Award)
M.Sc. in Administration (Marketing Option), John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
B.A. in English Linguistics and Literature, Beijing International Studies University