ITAL 409/ ITST 419/ RMST 420: ITALY and CHINA
Winter 2017/18 Term 2
Time and date: 11:00 am – 12:00 am, Mondy, Wednesday, Friday
Classroom: Room 202, Mathematics Building
Instructor: Professor Gaoheng ZHANG (Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies)
*This course fulfills Arts’ LiteratureRequirement and counts as an Interdisciplinary Studies (IDST) Research-intensive course. The language of instruction is English.
Course Description:
Since Marco Polo, Italy’s communication with China is the longest in Europe on the written record. In the 20th century, increased mobility intensified cultural exchanges between the two countries. Through examining key contemporary Italian-Chinese events, such as Italian intellectuals’ discussions about the
Cultural Revolution and Chinese migration to Italy, we will put Italian and European interpretations of
China as a rising superpower in perspective.
About the Instructor:
Gaoheng Zhang joined UBC as Assistant Professor of Italian Studies after holding positions as Assistant Professor of Italian Cinema at the University of Toronto and as a Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar in the Humanities (now the USC Society of Fellows) at the University of Southern California. He was educated in the fields of Italian Studies and (comparative) Cultural Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University (B.A.) and at New York University (M.A., Ph.D.).
His publications, teaching, public talks, and exhibitions have focused on Italy’s global networks through migration, colonialism, and travel during the 19th-21st centuries. He specializes in Chinese migration to Italy and contemporary Italian-Chinese relations as they are conveyed in diverse media. Currently he is under contract to revise a book manuscript titled “Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992-2012.” He has also begun to research for a new book project, tentatively titled “Mobilities Between Italy and China: Exile, Colonialism, Tourism, and Migration.”
Another major focus of his scholarship and teaching is masculinity and gender studies within the Italian and intercultural contexts. As his published articles and Ph.D. dissertation titled “Travel and Italian Masculinities in Gianni Amelio’s Cinema” show, a critical understanding of male identities and acts helps us to understand the local and global networks that Italians have formed throughout the 20th century.
He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies (2014-Present) and on the Publications Committee of the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program for Canada’s Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2017-20).
To learn more about his publications, please visit https://ubc.academia.edu/GaohengZhang.
