Zhange (Nicole) Ni

Zhange (Nicole) Ni is an Assistant Professor of Religion and Culture, specializing in Religion and Literature, Critical Theory, and Religion and Culture in Modern East Asia. She is an outstanding classroom innovator, one who, in the words of the October 2014 Teacher of the Week recognition, "is committed to helping undergraduate and graduate students to engage with and explore an increasingly multicultural world both within and outside the classroom." Her first book The Pagan Writes Back: When World Religion Meets World Literature was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2015. She is currently working on her new book project tentatively entitled The Child & the Sovereign: Religion, Violence, and Transnational Youth Culture. Her Diggs project will draw from her research as well as her experience of teaching courses in the Department of Religion and Culture at all levels. She envisions an annual student conference devoted to the topic of monsters. The agenda of this conference is to explore the fiction and reality of monsters most broadly defined, for instance, monsters in diverse religious and cultural traditions, monsters of science and technology, and/or monsters we define into being and defining who we are. The "monsters" conference will consist of scholarly panel discussions, exhibition/competition of creative works, and a movie night. Students, faculty, and stuff from all over the university will be able to sit, walk, talk, and work together across a range of boundaries on this fun project of making/unmaking monsters.