Bowen Zhang

Biography

Dr Bowen Zhang [she/her] is a Lecturer in Education at Keele University. Her teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including Education Developments around the World, Education Professionals, Independent Study Project (ISP), and Children and Learners in Society.
Bowen’s research focuses on the internationalisation of higher education, with particular expertise in the Chinese context. She is especially interested in epistemological exchanges between Chinese and Western universities through transnational partnerships, and critically examines the symbolic construction of knowledge, power, and priorities in international higher education.

Prior to joining Keele, Bowen was a Lecturer at Durham University’s School of Education. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester (2019–2024), with a thesis titled Making the Best out of Internationalisation: A Case Study of Transnational Higher Education in China. She also holds an MSc in Educational Studies from the University of Glasgow and a BSc (Hons) in Marketing from Newcastle University.

Research and scholarship

My research examines the internationalisation of higher education as both a policy agenda and a lived practice. I investigate how the term ‘internationalisation’ is used and negotiated across institutional, policy, and everyday contexts. Current projects explore the emotional and institutional labour involved in writing academic references for postgraduate admissions, as well as the experiences of international students navigating intercultural adaptation and territorial imaginaries in the UK. I also analyse the dynamics of Sino-foreign joint universities, particularly the tensions and synergies in epistemological exchange between Chinese and Western traditions. My work draws on Bourdieusian perspectives to understand symbolic hierarchies, capital, and habitus in transnational higher education.

Teaching

• EDU-30124 Ed Developments around the World
• EDU-30126 Education Professionals
• EDU-30071 ISP
• EDU-10080 Children and Learners in Society

Supervision

I would welcome projects from prospective research students interested in internationalisation and transnational higher education, the lived experiences of international students and returnee academics, comparative perspectives on higher education markets and policies, and critical approaches to admissive practices. I am also interested in supervising work that applies Bourdieusian theory and critical policy analysis to questions of knowledge, power, and inequality in higher education.