Angela Zito

Angela Zito is an American anthropologist and historian whose work focuses on the dialectics of social life in China, and the relationship between religion and media. Currently, she is an associate professor of anthropology and religious studies at New York University. and the co-founder and co-director of NYU's Center for Religion and Media, At NYU, she also organizes, with Zhang Zhen, the Reel China at NYU Film Biennial.

Zito was a founding member of the journal Positions: Asia Critique (Duke University Press) and remains on its editorial board. She directed the ethnographic film Writing in Water (2012), which explores the role of calligraphy in modern China.

Education and early life Zito was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1989.

Books

Zito is the editor of the 1994 book Body, Subject, and Power in China. In this book, writers approach the study of China from a theoretical and contemporary critical framework.

In 1997, Angela Zito wrote Of Body and Brush: Grand Sacrifice as Text/Performance in 18th Century China. This book changed the study of imperial ritual life, taking it seriously as a meaningful basis for the politics of the empire. It appeared in translation in Peking University Press's series on Anthropology and History as Shenti yu bi: 18shiji zhongguo zuowei wenben/biaoyan de Dasi. 身体与笔: 18世纪中国为文本/表演的大祀 translated by Li Jin 李晋.

In 2015, she co-edited the book DV-Made China: Digital Subjects and Social Transformations after Independent Film, which address different types of documentary filmmaking in China.

Awards and honors In 1991–92, Zito was awarded the National Committee for Communication with the People's Republic of China post-doctoral fellowship by the National Academy of Sciences. Zito received the Henry R. Luce Foundation initiative on Religion and International Affairs grant for September 2011-May 2014. In 2013, she was a recipient of NYU's Arts and Sciences Golden Dozen Teaching Awards for her professorial work at the university.