No photo of Dechun Zhang

Dechun Zhang

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

  • Karen Blixens Plads 8

    2300 København S

Personal profile

Short presentation

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Tracking and Society in the Department of Communication at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. I am working on the ERC Advanced Grant project "GREENWATCH – Green Surveillance: Imagining a Sustainable Internet of Things," focusing on IoT applications for environmental monitoring and their ethical and political implications, with PI Prof. Dr. Klaus Bruhn Jensen. My research interests are political communication, media and politics, digital politics, digital propaganda, online particpation and digital nationalism. I conduct research through both qualitative, quantitative and computational methodological approaches. I am currently working on my book manuscript, Echoes of Nationalism: Digital Propaganda and Online Participation on Weibo during COVID-19, under contract with Routledge.

I am currently an Affiliated Researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre, Leiden University, and an Expert Member of the China Knowledge Network, a Dutch government-supported initiative promoting China-related expertise in the Netherlands. I am now the Managing Editor at the Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, Editor at the Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Sage Open & Global Perspectives in Communication, and the Social Media Editor at the Journal of Visual Political CommunicationI serve as a reviewer for various journals and conferences and act as an External Expert, evaluating proposals for the COST Action, which is part of The European Cooperation in Science and Technology. My studies also appear in serval journals, book chapters and conferences. You can check my updated CV here.

I was a visiting researcher at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies in the Department of Political and Social Science at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany (host by Prof. Dr. Barbara Pfetsch). I completed my PhD at Leiden University, focusing on China's digital nationalism. I received my joint master degree from the Erasmus Mundus program in Journalism Media and Globalisation at Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Amsterdam in Netherlands, with a research track in media and politics. Also, I received my bachelor (Honors) degree from Hong Kong Baptist University in International Journalism. 

Education/Academic qualification

China studies, PhD, Leiden University

2 Sept 202025 Jun 2025

Award Date: 1 Mar 2025

Political communication, Master, University of Amsterdam

1 Sept 201930 Jun 2020

Award Date: 30 Jun 2020

Journalism Media and Globalisation, Master, Aarhus University

1 Sept 201830 Jun 2020

Award Date: 30 Jun 2020

International Journalism, Bachelor , Hong Kong Baptist University

1 Sept 201430 Jun 2018

Award Date: 1 Jul 2018

External positions

Editor, Global Perspectives in Communication

2 Jun 20252 Jun 2029

Editor, Sage Open

1 May 2025 → …

Expert Member , China Knowledge Network

24 Apr 2025 → …

Affiliated researcher, Leiden Asia Centre

4 Apr 2025 → …

Editor, Asia Pacific Viewpoint

16 Jan 2025 → …

Managing Editor, Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia

1 May 2023 → …

Social Media Editor, Journal of Visual Political Communication

1 Dec 2022 → …

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Digital politics
  • Political Communication
  • China politics
  • Propaganda
  • online participation
  • digital society

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or