Jia Zheng

Dr. Jia Zheng (a.k.a. Dr. Z) is an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Education in the Department of Student Development at the University of Massachusetts College of Education. Her scholarship draws from critical theories and critical qualitative methodologies to interrogate inequitable power systems and push for equity and justice in higher education through a transnational lens. Jia’s research focuses on 

1. Asian American and Asian international students and race, 
2. academic partnerships at transnational programs and institutions in the Global South, 
3. college and graduate students’ socialization to principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice during politically challenging times, and 
4. critical qualitative method(ologies).

Her work has appeared in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Qualitative Inquiry, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, and Inside Higher Ed. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the Opportunity Matters Journal.

Before her role at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Jia served as a Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the On-Campus Student Personnel in Higher Education Program at the University of Florida. Prior to her faculty life, Jia was an instructor for the undergraduate Leadership Studies Program at the University of Maryland College Park and has worked in various capacities as a student affairs practitioner at the University of Maryland College Park and Duke Kunshan University in China. Jia received her Ph.D. in the Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy Program at the University of Maryland College Park, Master in Education in Educational Policy at the University of Washington, and Bachelor of Education in English Education at the Education University of Hong Kong.