On July 1st, Rachel Zhou, professor in the department of Health, Aging and Society and member of the Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition, was appointed as the Acting Director of the MA Program in Globalization.
We caught up with Zhou to discuss her academic and professional journey, what excites her about this position, and what she does outside of work.
Tell us about your academic and professional journey so far.
Having had a joint appointment with IGHC since I joined McMaster in 2006, I have taught several courses in the MA program in Globalization studies, including one of the core courses “Designing Global Research” (Global St 709). My own research has been grounded on globalization and evolved from earlier topics on immigration and HIV to recent ones on pandemic politics and global youth, for example. I am the lead editor of “Sexualities, transnationalism, and globalization: New perspectives” (published by Routledge, 2021) and a themed symposium on Transnationalism, Sexuality, and HIV Risk (published in Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2017), and the co-editor of two books (published by Routledge, 2016 and 2017) and a special issue on Time and Globalization of the journal Globalizations, 2016. I am currently conducting a 4-year project entitled “Globalization, time, and nostalgia: A transnational conjunctural analysis”, which is funded by the SSHRC.
What excites you most about this position?
What excites me most about this position is the opportunities to connect with both faculty members and students who are interested in global studies and to explore and collaborate on some intriguing teaching and research topics that are urgent in the present world.
Outside of academia, what do you like to do?
I like photographing, travelling, hiking, and gardening.