Xiaoyan Zhang

I am a cultural studies and heritage researcher working at the intersection of critical heritage studies, museum anthropology, and environmental humanities. I completed my PhD at the University of Leeds, where my research examined landscape, heritage, and social relations through a comparative study of two ecomuseums in Guizhou Province, China. My broader research interests include ecomuseums, rural landscapes, participatory and ethnographic methods。

My work is grounded in long-term fieldwork and explores how heritage is negotiated through everyday practice, tourism, museumisation, and community life. Alongside my doctoral research, I have also developed interests in ecological knowledge, agroecological systems, and the relationship between living heritage and environmental change.

Publications

Book Chapter

Zhang, X., 2025. Ecomuseum in the urban periphery: Modernity, tourism, and heritage in the village of Zhenshan. In Cultural Heritage on the Urban Peripheries(pp. 126-140). Routledge.

Conferences and Presentations

• Nature(s) in Narrative, International Society for Folk Narrative Research, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2026
• American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, USA, November 2024
• American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, November 2023
• American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Portland, USA, November 2023
• The 16th Annual Ethnography Symposium, Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 2023
• Heritages – Past and Present – Built and Social, Prague, Czech Republic, June 2023
• Cultural Heritage at the Urban and Metropolitan Peripheries, Paris, France, June 2023

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Leeds, 2020–2025
• MA, University College London, 2018–2019
• BA, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, 2015–2018