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Zhou Y. Rachel, Professor

photo of Y. Rachel Zhou

Y. Rachel Zhou

Professor

Members
Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition

Faculty
Department of Health Aging & Society

Area(s) of Interest:

Biography

Research & Supervisory Interests

Dr. Zhou is interested in understanding how globalization processes (not limited to economic globalization) have both challenged and reproduced social inequalities experienced by people in local and transnational settings, and how public policy (e.g., social, health and immigration policies) has responded to the changing contexts of these issues. Research Interests include globalization, immigration, transnationalism; HIV and AIDS, and global health; aging and pensions; social/health policy; culture, gender, sexuality, and time/temporalities.

She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles, including those in Globalizations; Time & Society; Journal of Aging Studies; Social Science & Medicine; Health; Culture, Health & Sexuality; Global Social Policy; International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics; International Journal of Inclusive Education; Qualitative Health Research; and Transnational Social Review. She is 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. 

Dr. Zhou is a Principal Investigator of several projects funded by the Tri-Council grants, including “Globalization, time, and nostalgia: A transnational conjunctural analysis” (SSHRC, 2020-2024), “Living in ‘transnational spaces’: Gendered vulnerability to HIV of Chinese immigrants in Canada and the implications for future interventions” (CIHR, 2011-2016) , “Care, aging and globalization: Transnational care-giving experiences of Chinese seniors in Canada” (SSHRC, 2007-2010), and “HIV/AIDS in the context of international migration and global interdependence: Understanding the vulnerability to HIV of Chinese and Indian immigrant communities in Canada” (CIHR, 2007-2009).   

 

Education

  • Education

    • PhD, University of Toronto (2006)
    • MA, University of Toronto, Canada (2000)
    • MLL, Wuhan University (1996)
    • BA, Wuhan University (1993)

Teaching

Graduate Supervisions

Doctorate (PhD)

Imagining social work: Assembling inter- and trans-generational visions of a modern project (completed)

Growing older with HIV project: Perspectives on aging and time of gay men living in Ontario (in progress)

An Institutional Inquiry into Anti-Trafficking Investigation of Migrant Sex Workers (in progress)

Masters - Major Research Papers (MRP)

2021
In Times of a Global Pandemic: Displaced Individuals, Immigration Policies and Human Rights
2019

Exploring the Simultaneity of E-waste in Tanzania as Hazardous Waste and a Source of Livelihood: A Multi-level Approach to Change

2018

The Waiting Room: A Metaphoric Understanding of the Undocumented Migrants’ Struggle
The experiences of Muslim women in the West: Islamo-racism in Education and the workplace

2017

Dispersal Dynamism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: A Comparative Analysis between Inuit and Torontonian Populations in Canada

2016

The Politics of Indigeneity: The Case of Bangladesh
Humanitarianism for Whom?: Constructing the Security Scapegoat in Canada’s Syrian Refugee Policy

2015

Development Assistance for Health in Latin Central America: Global Trends Influencing Regional Data
Travel Sickness: Medical Tourism and the Commodification of Medical Care

2012

A Socio-Historical Approach to HIV/AIDS in South Africa: Race, Power and Apartheid

2011

Neoliberalism Beneath Social Investment Discourses?: A Critical Analysis of the World Bank’s Education Sector Strategy 2020 
An Exploration of the Impacts of China’s Increasing Economic Engagement in sub-Saharan Africa
The Undecidables and the Hybridity of Identity
A Sacred Place: Capturing the Story of the Sacred Headwaters Social Movement (Co-supervision)

2010

Migration and Development: A Preliminary Assessment of the ‘Deskilling’ Situation Faced by Chinese Skilled Immigrants in Canada

2009

The Construction of Female Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Kenya: Gender Mainstreaming or Gender Masking?
Globalization, Migration and Remittances: The Impacts of Remittances on Women’s Lives in Kathmandu, Nepal
Under the Same Blue Sky? A Preliminary Study of Left-behind Children in Rural China in the Context of Globalization
The Social Networks of Chinese Elderly Immigrants in Canada: Implications for Public Service Utilization

2008

Community Building and Resistance in Food Banks
The Impact of Globalization on Intra-Ethnic Relations: The Case of Chinese Sub-Groups in the Greater Toronto Area (co-supervision)
Pursuing Social Justice through the Market: Fair Trade Coffee in Latin America
Social Work Activism amidst Neo-liberal Policies: How Social Workers Maintain Resistance?

2007

The Working Conditions of Women in the Global Garment Sector: A Comparative Perspective
Reformasi: Race and Identity in Malaysian Politics in a Globalized Era
Identity, Mobilization and Globalization: The Role of Art in Creating Social Changes in Hamilton, Ontario

Masters - Theses

2020

Examining the housing experiences of refugee claimant families in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area: Service Providers’ Perspectives

2018

Gendered precarity: Millennial mothers’ experiences of taking pregnancy/parental leave in a precarious labour market

2017

Living with ambiguity: The strategies of Tongzhi’s/queers’ negotiation with their sexual identities in globalizing China

2016

The Experiences of Women Aging in Place: The Case of Searchmont, Ontario
Experiences of the Millennial Generation of Chinese International Students in Canadian Universities
The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent: Lodging Homes in Hamilton

2015

Social burden or social resources? Understanding Chinese senior immigrants’ contributions in Canada

2012

The Fluidity of Power: Complexities, Contradictions and Challenges of Visible Minority Women Working in Women’s Shelters
Policy Responses to Income Inequality in a Canadian Context
A critical comparison of the Workers’ Compensation in South Korea and Canada: Different routes to the same destination?

2011

Motherhoods, Bodies and Inequalities: An Exploration of Surrogacy and its Implications for Social Work

2010

The Expert Knowledge of University Graduate Students with Learning Disabilities: A Policy and Service Analysis

Courses Taught

  • GLOBAL ST 709 Designing Global Research: Approaches, Methods, and Techniques
  • SOC WORK 770 Social Work and Social Justice: Theoretical Tensions
  • SOC WORK 701 Social Policy: Critical frameworks
  • SOC WORK 738 Research Methods for Social Work
  • SOC WORK 706 Social Welfare and Social Work in the Context of Globalization and Restructuring
  • SOC WORK 4GG3 Transnational lives in a globalizing world
  • SOC WORK 2B03 Social Welfare: General Introduction
  • GLOBAL ST 749 Global Health Crisis
  • GLOBAL ST 704 Global Social Policy
  • GLOBAL ST 715 Globalization and China
  • HST 4D03 Health in Cross-Cultural and International Perspectives
  • INQUIRY 1SS3 Inquiry in the Social Sciences

Research

 Books

Zhou, Y. R., Sinding, C., & Goellnicht, D. (Eds.). (2021). Sexualities, transnationalism, and globalization: new perspectives. London & New York: Routledge.

Huebener, P., O’Brien, S., Porter, T., Stockdale, L., & Zhou, Y. R. (Eds.) (2017). Time and globalization: an interdisciplinary dialogue. London & New York: Routledge.

Huebener, P., O’Brien, S., Porter, T., Stockdale, L., & Zhou, Y. R. (Eds.) (2016). Time, globalization, and human experiences: an interdisciplinary exploration. London & New York: Routledge.

 

Selected peer-reviewed articles

Zhou, Y. R. (in press). Nostalgia in times of uncertainty: (Re)articulations of the past, present, and future of globalization. In M. B. Steger, R. Benedikter, H. Pechlaner & I. Kofler (eds.), Globalization: past, present, future. The University of California Press. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2023). The lying flat movement, global youth, and globality: A case of collective reading on Reddit. Globalizations. DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2023.2165377 

Zhou, Y. R. (2022). Vaccine nationalism: contested relationships between COVID-19 and globalization. Globalizations, 19(3),450-465.  (Open Access)    

Zhou, Y. R., Sinding, C., Watt, L., Gahagan, J. & Micollier, E. (2022). Gender and trajectories of marital breakdown: accounts of Chinese immigrant women in Canada. Affilia, 37(4), 701-716. (Open Access)    

Zhou, Y. R. (2021).  Transnational sexualities: Trajectories of Chinese queer immigrants to Canada.  In Y. R. Zhou, C. Sinding, & D.  Goellnicht (Eds.), Sexualities, transnationalism, and globalization: new perspectives (pp. 46-60). London & New York: Routledge.

Zhou, Y. R., Goellnicht, D., & Sinding, C. (2021).  Introduction.  In Y. R. Zhou C. Sinding, & D.  Goellnicht (Eds.), Sexualities, transnationalism, and globalization: new perspectives (pp. 1-15). London & New York: Routledge.  

Zhou, Y. R. (2020). Transnational grandparenting: the intersection of transnationalism and translocality. In V. Timonen (Ed.), Grandparenting practices around the world (pp. 113-130). Bristol: Policy Press.

Zhou, Y. R., Watt, L., Micollier, E., & J. Gahagan. (2019). Rethinking “Chinese community" in the context of transnationalism: the case of economic immigrants from China in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 20(2): 537-555. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s1213

Zhou, Y. R., & Shi, S. (2017). Pension reforms in the context of the global financial crisis: a reincarnation of pension privatization through austerity?. In B. Evans & S. McBride (eds.), Lived experience of austerity (pp. 222-245). University of Toronto Press.

Zhou, Y. R. (2017). The new aging trajectories of Chinese grandparents in Canada. In P. Dossa & C. Coe (eds.), Transnational Aging and Kin-Work (pp.43-60). Rutgers University Press. 

Huebener, P., O’Brien, S., Porter, T., Stockdale, L., & Zhou, Y. R. (2017). Reworking Resilience: A Conceptual Framework. Globalization Working Papers, 17/1, 2-25.

Zhou, Y. R. Coleman, W. D., Huang, Y., Sinding, C. Wei, W., Gahagan, J., Micollier, E., Su, H. (2017). Editorial introduction: exploring the intersection of transnationalism, sexuality, and HIV risk. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 19(6), 645-652. (Open access)

Sinding, C., & Zhou, Y. R. (2017). Intimacy, identity and relationship in the accounts of Chinese immigrants to Canada: The contribution of narrative analysis. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 19(6), 653-666. (Open access)

Zhou, Y. R. (2017). "Race" and HIV vulnerability in a transnational context: the case of Chinese Immigrants to Canada. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 19(6), 695-708. (Open access)

Zhou, Y. R., Majumdar, B., & Vattikonda, N. (2016). Culture, but more than culture: an exploratory study of the HIV vulnerability of Indian immigrants in Canada. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 18 (9), 1067-1080.

Huebener, P., O’Brien, S., Porter, T., Stockdale, L., & Zhou, Y. R. (2016). Editors’ introduction: exploring the intersection of time and globalization. Globalizations,13(3) 243-255.

Zhou, Y. R., & Coleman, W. D. (2016). Accelerated contagion and response: understanding the relationships among globalization, time, and disease. Globalizations, 13(3), 285-299.

Huebener, P., O’Brien, S., Porter, T., Stockdale, L., & Zhou, Y. R. (2016). Introduction. In Huebener, P., S. O’Brien, T. Porter, L. Stockdale, & Y. R. Zhou (Eds.). Time, Globalization, and Human Experiences (pp.1-25). Routledge.

Zhou, Y. R. (2015). Time, space and care: rethinking transnational care from a temporal perspective. Time & Society, 24(2), 163-182. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2014). Austerity now, poverty later?: pensions. In D. Baines & S. McBride (eds.), Orchestrating austerity (pp. 120-133). Fernwood Publishing.

Zhou, Y. R. (2013). Toward transnational care interdependence: rethinking the relationships between care, immigration and social policy. Global Social Policy, 13(3), 280-298.

Zhou, Y. R. (2013). Transnational aging: the impacts of adult children’s immigration on their parents’ later lives. Transnational Social Review, 3(1), 49-64. 

Neysmith, S. M., & Zhou, Y. R. (2013). Mapping another dimension of a feminist ethics of care: family-based transnational care. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 6(2), 141-159. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2012). Space, time, and self: rethinking aging in the contexts of immigration and transnationalism. Journal of Aging Studies, 26(3), 232-242. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2012). Changing behaviours and continuing silence: sex in the post-immigration lives of mainland Chinese immigrants in Canada. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 14(1), 87-100. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2010). The phenomenology of time: lived experiences of people with HIV/AIDS in China. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 14, 310-325. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2009). Welfare. In G. H. Fagan & R. Munck (Eds.), Globalization and security: an encyclopedia (vol. 2), pp.387-404. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Zhou, Y. R. (2008). Economic reform, neoliberal globalization and social policy: reconstructing the relationship between the state, the market and citizens in China. Global Social Policy, 8(1), 115-128. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2008). Endangered womanhood: women’s experiences with HIV/AIDS in China. Qualitative Health Research, 18, 1115-1126. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2007). “If you get AIDS… You have to endure it alone”: understanding the social constructions of HIV/AIDS in China. Social Science & Medicine, 65(2), 284-295. 

Zhou, Y. R. (2006). Homosexuality, seropositivity, and family obligations: perspectives of HIV-infected men who have sex with men in China. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 8(6), 487-500. 

Zhou, Y. R., Knoke, D., & Sakamoto, I. (2005). Rethinking silence in the classroom: Chinese students’ experiences of sharing indigenous knowledge. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 9(3), 287-311. 

 

Other articles

Zhou, Y. R. (March 17, 2020). The global effort to tackle the coronavirus face mask shortage. The Conversation.

Zhou, Y. R. (Feb. 2, 2020). Wuhan, the coronavirus and the world: thinking beyond isolation. The Conversation.