Xintong Jia

Overview

Xintong Jia is a PhD candidate in Sociology at City, University of London, supervised by Prof. Rosalind Gill and Dr Lia Litosseliti. Prior to coming to City, Xintong received an MA in Media and Cultural Studies, a BA in Media and Communication Studies, and worked as a journalist and a micro filmmaker. Xintong also obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK.

Using reality dating shows as a prism, Xintong's PhD project explores female subjectivity and the changing gender relations in contemporary China, shifts in the way that intimacy is practised, and the dynamics of (post)feminism. Her research interests intersect media and gender, popular culture, feminism in post-socialist China, and qualitative research methods. Xintong’s chapter ‘Victoria’s Secret goes to China: femvertising and the failed promise of empowerment’ appears in the edited volume The Cultural Politics of Femvertising (2022). In this chapter, she analyses how the notion of empowerment has been carefully wrapped up in the narratives of racial diversity and bodily inclusiveness emphasised by Victoria’s Secret’s femvertising strategies, and how the neoliberal governmentality has extended its territory from women’s bodies to women’s minds.

Xintong’s work has been presented in numerous conferences and academic events including British Sociological Association Annual Conference, European Sociological Association Conference, Nord Media Conference, International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference, and Psychology of Sexualities Annual Conference, etc.

Fellowships

1. Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Publications by category