Xinyu Deng
Affiliations
Doctoral Student
University of Calgary
Contact information
Background
Educational Background
MA Global Communication, University of Southern California, 2023
MSc Global Media and Communications, London School of Economics, 2022
BA English Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, 2021
Biography
If you’ve taken a look at my educational background, you might notice that I’ve transitioned from humanities to media studies, and finally to geography. I’m a bit all over the place, but, I proudly call myself a transdisciplinary researcher. Nevertheless, my focus is on critical data studies, an interdisciplinary field investigating the social, cultural, political, and ethical consequences of datafication. To put it simply, our social world is becoming increasingly quantified and datafied, as seen in smart city initiatives, and our future is being shaped by computational logics.
Research
Areas of Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG 204 | Global Environmental Change | Fall 2024 |
| GEOG 204 | Global Environmental Change | Winter 2025 |
| GEOG 352 | Political, Economic, and Urban Geography | Winter 2025 |
Projects
I have several publications on China Media Project, an independent research institution about Chinese media landscape, for those who are interested:
https://chinamediaproject.org/2023/08/18/the-battle-of-brick-lane/
https://chinamediaproject.org/2023/03/09/framing-chinas-health-experts/
https://chinamediaproject.org/the_ccp_dictionary/socialite/
https://chinamediaproject.org/the_ccp_dictionary/chinese-style-modernization/
As a research assistant, I contribute to a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) project that ensures sustainable engineering solutions are widely adopted by anticipating collective behavioral responses. By integrating social science and engineering tools including complexity theory, welfare economics, ethics, strategic foresight, behavioral modeling, game theory, AI, and agent-based modeling, we develop holistic, equitable solutions to promote sustainable technologies and policies across diverse communities.
Awards
- President's Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship in Transdisciplinary Research, University of Calgary. 2024
More Information
Understanding Data as A Political-Economic Object
Solo-authored paper presented at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference, Seattle, US, September 2025
Commodification of Gameplay and Platformization of Playbor: A Walk-Through Study of Chinese Game Companion Platform Bixin
Solo-authored paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference, Niterói, Brazil, October 2025
Are you the profile owner?
Login to edit.