Why I chose UC Davis
My name is Zhen Zhang. I come from China. My hometown is a middle-sized town in Hunan province, China. The town was built in 1958 because they found coal mines in the town. So that’s basically where I come from.
So, before Davis, I went to school in Beijing, in Beijing Foreign Studies University. I spent four years and got a bachelor’s degree. And then I continued study in graduate school right after I graduated in Seattle, in the University of Washington, in the department of Slavic Languages & Literature. After 2 years or so, I finished my master’s degree and I came here – Davis.
I chose UC Davis for graduate school mostly because of my research interests. I want to study Chinese and Russian literature and Critical Theory. And here they provide a unique opportunity for me to study all these different subjects. And this seems to be the only place of many graduate schools that will focus, for example, on Chinese Cinema, Critical Theory, Socialist Aesthetics, that totally go very well with my research interests. This is why I’m here. Well and also there’s another reason why I’m here. Comparative Literature provides very great funding opportunities. For example, they provide six years guaranteed teaching fellowship. I think this is also part of the reason why I chose UC Davis.
What do you like about Davis?
Davis is a small college town and it’s extremely safe and people are extremely nice. And because it has a very big university, people are very intellectual. And we usually find ourselves in very civilized and intellectual conversations. And I pretty much enjoy this part of Davis.