The Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the College of Liberal Arts Congratulates Teresa Zimmerman-Liu

April 16, 2013

Teresa Zimmerman-Liu received her M.A. in Asian Studies in spring 2012 from California State University, Long Beach, and is a recipient of the CSU Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program for the 2013-2014 academic year. Beginning fall 2013, Teresa will pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology at University of California, San Diego, where she will work with distinguished professor and Director of the UC-Fudan Center Dr. Richard Madsen. Teresa’s doctoral research will focus on Christianity in China and extend the research that she completed while earning her M.A. at CSULB.

As a student in CSULB’s Asian Studies M.A. program, Zimmerman-Liu worked with Dr. Teresa Wright, Professor and Chair of Political Science, to research unregistered Protestant groups in China and their relationships with the Chinese party-state. This line of research constituted the China Studies component of her degree. Zimmerman-Liu and Dr. Wright co-authored a total of four papers and presented their work at three national and international conferences in Singapore, Hawaii, and San Diego. Their papers have been published in the book Christianity in Contemporary China: Socio-cultural Perspectives (Routledge, 2013),  China: An International Journal (April, 2013), and The Changing World Religion Map (Springer, forthcoming). Their fourth co-authored paper is currently under review at Journal of Church and State, and Zimmerman-Liu has a single-authored paper under review at Social Science and Missions.

Zimmerman-Liu also studied Asian Literature and researched identity construction in twentieth-century Chinese martial arts novels, movies, and T.V. dramas. Her master’s thesis examined the fifteen martial arts novels by the popular novelist Jin Yong. She analyzed his construction of a modern, hybrid Chinese identity through his representations of ideal men and ideal women. Zimmerman-Liu presented three papers regarding this research at various conferences in southern California.

She was active in the Asian Studies Graduate Society, serving as President (2010-2011) and Treasurer (2011-2012). Under her leadership, the group organized a graduate student conference in Asian Studies that attracted students from California and Hawaii to present their research. They also sponsored workshops, film screenings, and speakers on topics related to Asia and won the 2011 CLASC Award for Best CLA Student Organization when Teresa was an officer.

Zimmerman-Liu was employed during her time at CSULB as a research intern at the CSULB chapter of the California Faculty Association and as a freelance Mandarin Chinese-English translator and interpreter. Her research work for the union focused on trends in higher education and contributed to several internal white papers for union leaders. Her most notable translation project was the translation of an essay by Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, which appears in No Enemies, No Hatred (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Since graduating last spring, Zimmerman-Liu has made the most of this past year by taking courses in sociological theory at CSULB to lay a foundation for her Ph.D. studies. She is currently working on two book translations, one of which is Casting the Lyrical: Research on Creative Methodologies for Glass Art by Xiaowei Zhuang, Professor of Fine Arts at Shanghai University. In her spare time, Zimmerman-Liu enjoys reading novels, playing the viola, making mosaic pictures, and hanging out with friends.