Dr. Chenshu Zhou

Biography

Chenshu Zhou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies and History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her PhD from Stanford University in 2016. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn, she held postdoctoral teaching positions at NYU Shanghai from 2019 to 2020 and at Stanford University from 2016 to 2019. Her main regional focus is on China, and her research explores a variety of questions related to cinema and media, including exhibition, moviegoing, cinema ontology, screen cultures, media archaeology, and media infrastructure. Her forthcoming book, "Cinema Screen: Moviegoing in Socialist China," published by the University of California Press in 2021, rethinks the institutional, ideological, and cultural role of film exhibition, demonstrating that film exhibition produces meaning beyond the films shown. She elaborates on the concept that cinema takes place on the screen and explores film exhibition in China from the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949 to the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. Drawing from original archival research, interviews, and audience recollections, "Cinema Screen" decenters the filmic text and offers a study of the institutional operations and lived experiences of cinema. Currently, she is expanding her inquiries into the material basis of the cinematic experience and guest editing a special issue of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas entitled “Spaces of Encounter.” She is embarking on inter-related projects exploring new ways to conduct research in a post-COVID-19 world, aiming to develop a material history of Chinese cinema told from the perspective of cinematic objects, film stock, props, projectors, and movie theater snacks, while also exploring the relationship between time-based media and transportation infrastructure, particularly bridges and highways. In her teaching, Chenshu emphasizes empowering students to learn in personally meaningful ways at Penn, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of History of Art and the Cinema & Media Studies program, and looks forward to working with students and faculty with diverse interests in cinema, media, China, and East Asia.

Research Interests

Courses