Yuchen Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Media from the University of Michigan. She received her M.A. in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University, an M.Sc. in Specialized Translation from University College London (UCL), and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of International Relations in Beijing, China.
Yuchen is a critical media and technology scholar and ethnographer whose research lies at the intersection of digital studies, urban studies, the anthropology of the global, and contemporary China. Her work examines two main themes: China’s data-driven governance and China's global outreach via digital platforms. Her work has appeared in communication and media studies venues such as New Media & Society and Information, Communication & Society, as well as social computing venues such as ACM CHI and CSCW.
Yuchen is currently completing her first monograph, tentatively entitled Brokering New York City: Global China, Real Estate, and the Politics of (Im)Mobilities. Drawing on over two years of multi-sited ethnographic research with real estate and immigration-through-investment (EB-5 visa) brokerages, the book offers a novel account of real estate development and financing in gentrifying New York City through the lens of Chinese immigrants and the transnational mobilities their investments create.
Before joining NYU, Yuchen was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). Her research has been supported by the PSC-CUNY Research Award Program, the AAARI Faculty Research Support Program at CUNY, the Barbour Scholarship, among others.