About Me

Xiaogao Zhou (He/They, pronounced Shaw-gaw Chow) is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Chicago. They are interested in gender and sexuality, medicine, and transnational processes. Their work draws from medical sociology, queer theory, and transgender studies to understand how social institutions manage and regulate gender and sexually diverse people. Their work has appeared in Social Problems, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Homosexuality, among others.

Xiaogao's dissertation examines the development of gender-affirming care in China using a multi-cited ethnography. Specifically, they ask: 1) How does the gender-affirming care model gain traction within the Chinese healthcare landscape? and 2) How do various stakeholders, including healthcare providers, activists, transgender individuals, and their families, navigate this new approach to transgender medicine? Answers to these questions illuminate China's complex relations with global changes, offering insights into transnational and local dynamics reproducing challenges for transgender and gender-nonconforming people.