Rate My Professor Kun Zhang

Kun Zhang is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and distinguished dean at the School of Journalism and Communication at Minzu University of China. He has held the position of distinguished dean since 2020. Zhang also serves as a distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Journalism and Information Communication at Huazhong University of Science and Technology since 2006. His academic career includes roles at Wuhan University, where he served as dean of the School of Journalism and Information Communication from 1997 to 2006, associate professor from 1993 to 1996, lecturer from 1991 to 1993, and teaching assistant from 1986 to 1990. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from Wuhan University between 1998 and 2003, a master’s degree in journalism from Renmin University of China between 1984 and 1986, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Wuhan University between 1980 and 1984. He was a visiting scholar and guest researcher at Soka University in Japan from 1990 to 1991.

Zhang’s research focuses on journalism and communication history, including general history, ideological history, and educational history; political communication, encompassing national image, social mobilization, and public opinion; and higher education in journalism and communication. He has led major national projects, including the National Social Science Fund major project on the century-long dissemination of China’s national image in Western mainstream media under the perspective of a community with a shared future for mankind (2019–present) and another on the construction of China’s national image in cross-cultural communication (2011–2018). Key publications include the edited volume China National Image Communication Report (2018), the edited China Journalism and Communication Education Yearbook 2018 (2018), the monograph Three Reflections on Journalism Education (2017), the edited Foreign Journalism and Communication History (2016), the monograph On Journalism Education Reform (2012), and the monograph Introduction to the History of Chinese and Foreign Journalism and Communication Thought (2006). His honors include the third prize of the Eighth Higher Education Scientific Research Achievement Award (Humanities and Social Sciences) in 2020, the second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award in 2018, selection as a leading talent in philosophy and social sciences under the National Ten Thousand Talents Program in 2017, and the State Council Special Allowance in 2008. Zhang holds positions such as member of the News and Communication Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, member of the National Excellent Journalism and Communication Talent Education Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, vice president of the Chinese Journalism History Society, and vice president of the Chinese Communication Society. He serves as director and editor-in-chief of the editorial board of the China Journalism and Communication Education Yearbook.