Dechun Zhang

Dechun Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Tracking and Society in the Department of Communication at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is currently working on the ERC Advanced Grant project "GREENWATCH – Green Surveillance: Imagining a Sustainable Internet of Things," focusing on IoT applications for environmental monitoring and their ethical and political implications under PI Prof. Dr. Klaus Bruhn Jensen. Zhang also holds affiliations as an Affiliated Researcher at the Leiden Asia Centre, Leiden University, and serves as an Expert Member of the China Knowledge Network, a Dutch government-supported initiative promoting China-related expertise in the Netherlands.

His research interests span political communication, media and politics, digital politics, digital propaganda, online participation, and digital nationalism. Zhang employs diverse methodological approaches including qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods. His current book manuscript, "Echoes of Nationalism: Digital Propaganda and Online Participation on Weibo during COVID-19," is under contract with Routledge.

Zhang's editorial work is extensive, serving as Managing Editor for the Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, Editor for Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Sage Open, and Global Perspectives in Communication, and Social Media Editor for the Journal of Visual Political Communication. His research output shows a clear trend toward examining digital nationalism, state-society relations in China, and the political implications of digital technologies, with particular attention to social media platforms like Weibo.

• Emerging Scholar Award (2021)
• Emerging Scholar Award (2022)
• Emerging Scholar Award (2023)

Zhang serves as a reviewer for various journals and conferences and acts as an External Expert evaluating proposals for the COST Action. His academic background includes a PhD in China studies from Leiden University (awarded March 2025), Master's degrees in Political Communication from University of Amsterdam and Journalism Media and Globalisation from Aarhus University, and a Bachelor's degree in International Journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University.