Zhuo Ban , PHD

Zhuo Ban is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication, Film, & Media Studies at University of Cincinnati. Her research takes a global, critical perspective to contemporary issues in Organizational Communication and Public Relations, such as globalized supply chains, offshore labor politics, and corporate social responsibility discourses.  Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including Organization, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Public Relations Inquiry, and Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.

PhD: Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, 2012 (Communication)

MA: Tsinghua University Beijing, China, 2008 (Communication)

Activism and Resistance: As a Public Relations scholar, my research seeks to further theoretical understanding of activism in contemporary globalized contexts. My research offers a critical evaluation of existing theoretical models of activism, and takes a culture-centered approach to re-invigorating dominant understandings of activism and resistance.
Globalization and Marginalization: Challenging the functional rationality prevalent in the understanding of globalization in Public Relations scholarship, my research interrogates the process of globalization vis-à-vis the process of marginalization, and attempts to theorize public relations from the margin.    
Offshoring and the US-China Relationship: A related line of my research looks at the complex relationship between China and the West in the context of China’s emergence as a major offshore production destination. Some of my current work looks at how US companies construct China’s business environment in documents like the Chamber of Commerce’s Commercial Guide for Companies; another effort look at how the rising economic clout of China is constructed in mainstream US public discourse.

Book Chapter

Ban, Z. (2023). Emotional Communities in the Economy of Emotions: A Study of Discursive Muscularity in Networked Mobilization of Fan Groups in China. In Organizing at the Margins: Theorizing Organizations of Struggle in the Global South (pp. 183-202). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Ban, Z., & Zoller, H. M. (2021). “Controlling and Resisting". In F. Cooren & P. Stücheli-Herlach (Ed.), Handbook of Management Communication (pp.123-142). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501508059-fm

Zoller, H.M., & Ban, Z. (2020) Power and Resistance. In A. Nicotera (Ed.). Organizational Communication: A Comprehensive Introduction. New York: Routledge.

Ban, Z. (2017). Her milk is inferior: Breastfeeding, risk, and imagining maternal identities in Chinese cyberspace. In S. Hartnett, L. Keränen, & D. Conley, (Eds.). Imagining China: Rhetorics of Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Invited Publication

Sastry, S., & Ban, Z. (2020). COVID-19, anti-Asian racism, and the racialization of epidemics. National Communication Association.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Ban, Z. (2020). Open for change but closed for transformation: A communicative analysis of managerial corporate social responsibility discourse on the issue of labor. Organization, 1350508419867209.

Ban, Z., & Pan, X. (2019). An analysis of national image communication strategies of Chinese corporations in the context of one-belt-one-road. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 1-10.

Ban, Z. (2018). Tracing the discourse of migrant labor in China: mobility, fixity and displacement in the workshop of the world. International Journal of Communication

Ban, Z. (2018). Calibrating the tilted scale: (Re)constructing fairness in fair wage discourse. Journal of Applied Communication Research. 46:4, 409-428, DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2018.1498979

Ban, Z. (2017). Laboring under the cross: An analysis of discursive tension and identity in the context of a Chinese house church. Management Communication Quarterly, 31(2), 230-257. doi:10.1177/0893318916680905

Ban. (2016). Delineating responsibility, decisions and compromises: a frame analysis of the fast food industry’s online CSR communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 44(3), 296. doi: 10.1080/00909882.2016.1192290

Ban, Z., Sastry, S., & Dutta, M. (2013). “Shoppers' Republic of China”: Orientalism in Neoliberal U.S. News Discourse. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. 6(4). doi: 10.1080/17513057.2013.792941

Ban, Z., & Dutta, M. J. (2012). Minding their business: Discourses of colonialism and neoliberalism in the commercial guide for U.S. companies in China. Public Relations Inquiry, 1, 197-220. doi: 10.1177/2046147X11435079

Peer Reviewed Conference/Workshop Proceedings

Dutta, M. J., Ban, Z. & Pal, M. (2012). Engaging worldviews, cultures, and structures through dialogue: The culture-centered approach to public relations. PRism 9(2)

Paper Presentations

Zhuo Ban (11-15-2015. ) Religion, Corporate & Marginalized Labor: Discursive Tensions and Identity in a Chinese House Church .Las Vegas, NV. Conference. Level:National

Zhuo Ban, Shaunak Sastry (05-2015. ) Delineating Responsibility, Decisions and Compromises: A Frame Analysis of QSR’s Online Communication about Nutrition .San Juan, Puerto Rico. Conference. Level:International

Zhuo Ban (11-2014. ) Negotiating Oppressive Structure and Resistive Impulse: An Ethnography of A House Church in China .Chicago, IL. Conference. Level:National

Ban, Zhuo (03-2014. ) Towards an emic understanding of labor retention —A culture-centered approach to measurement development. Miami, FL. Conference. Level:International

Ban, Zhuo (02-2014. ) “Good mums use American formula”: Online discourses on breastfeeding as an infant health risk in urban China. P .Anaheim, CA. Conference. Level:Regional

Ban, Z., Dillard, S.Jones, C., Kumar, R. & Sastry, S. (11-2012. ) Community, Culture, and Power: Culture-centered approaches to communication and social change. Orlando, FL. Conference. Level:National

National Communication Association (Public Relations Division ) Reviewer Type:Editorial Service Level:Prof. Org. 2013 -To Present

Communication, Culture and Critique Reviewer Type:Editorial Service Level:International 2012 -To Present

Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture Reviewer Type:Editorial Service Level:International 2012 -To Present

Health Communication Reviewer Type:Editorial Service Level:International 2014

(Research Working Group ) Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 2013 -To Present

Department of Communication (LEAF team ) Type:Departmental Service Level:Department

Department of Communication (Graduate Admission Committee ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department

Department of Communication (Educator Faculty Search Committee ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department

Department of Communication (Diversity and Inclusion Committee ) Committee Member Type:Departmental Service Level:Department 03-2016

Health Communication Peer Review/Referee Type:Editorial Service Level:Prof. Org. 2014

Journal of Applied Communication Research Peer Review/Referee Type:Editorial Service Level:Prof. Org. 2016

2009 -To Present: Member National Communication Association,

2009 -To Present: Member International Communication Association,

-COMM-3000 PR RESEARCH Level:Undergraduate

Seminar on Public Relations & Issue Management Level:Graduate

-COMM-3000 PR RESEARCH Level:Undergraduate

-COMM-3000 PR RESEARCH

Seminar in Public Relations and Issue Management Level:Graduate

-COMM-4042 PR CAMPAIGNS Level:Undergraduate

-COMM-5009 ID IMAGE ISSUE MAN Level:Undergraduate