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Professor Zed Zhipeng Gao joined the American University of Paris in 2021. A Canadian scholar with an interdisciplinary background, he holds a Ph.D. in the historical, theoretical, and critical studies of psychology and has conducted postdoctoral research in sociology and anthropology.

Gao's research explores the formation of human subjects within political, social, and epistemic systems. He has pursued this question through three lines of inquiry. The first examines the history of psychology under Chinese communism, focusing on how psychology contributed to the formation of socialist subjects. The second investigates how contemporary geopolitical forces influence identity in national, racial, and cultural terms. The third turns to theoretical questions, drawing on poststructuralism to examine the epistemological and methodological foundations of social inquiry.

Gao has published more than twenty journal articles and book chapters. He has also (co-)edited special issues of Theory & Psychology and Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, as well as a book volume in the Palgrave Studies in Indigenous Psychology series. He serves on the editorial boards of Theory & Psychology, History of Psychology, and the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical and Theoretical Psychology, and on the Executive Board of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology. He also co-organized the 2025 Three Societies Meeting (ESHHS, Cheiron, and SHP) in Paris. His work has received awards in theoretical psychology, the history of psychology, international psychology, and qualitative inquiry.

Before joining �̾�����Ƶ, Gao taught in Toronto and Vancouver. At �̾�����Ƶ, he uses a roundtable seminar format to combine intellectual rigor with open dialogue and collaborative learning.

• Postdoc in Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University & The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• PhD in Psychology, York University, Canada
• MA in Psychology, York University, Canada

EDITED BOOK VOLUME

• Gao, Z. & Medved, M. (Eds.) (2025). , Palgrave Macmillan.

EDITED JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUES

• Gao, Z. & Teo, T. (Eds.) (2023). Special Issue “”,&�Բ�����;Theory & Psychology, 33(2), Sage.
• Gao, Z. (Ed.) (2022). Special Issue “”,&�Բ�����;Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 56(2), Springer. 

REPRESENTATIVE REFEREED ARTICLES 

• Gao, Z. (2023). . In Z. Gao & T. Teo (Eds.) special issue “Theorizing the Psychology of Deglobalization”,&�Բ�����;Theory & Psychology, 33(2), 266-283. 
• Gao, Z. (2021). . In Z. Morrill, L. Hoffman & M. Yang (Eds.) special issue “COVID-19 Part II”. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 61(2), 198-218.
• Gao, Z. (2020). . In W. Pickren & T. Teo (Eds.) special issue “Re-envisioning general psychology”. Review of General Psychology, 24(1), 43-59.
• Gao, Z. (2019). . In H. Y. Wu (Ed.) special issue “History of psychology and psychiatry in the global world”. History of Psychology, 22(4), 309-327.
• Gao, Z. & Bischoping, K. (2019). . In M. Krings, C. Kilian & J. Beek (Eds.) special issue “An anthropology of defrauding and faking”. Social Anthropology, 27(3), 438-454.
• Gao, Z. (2015). . In H. Chiang (Ed.), special issue “Ordering the social: History of the human sciences in modern China”. History of Science, 53(1), 57-85.

See my  for a complete list of publications.