Yee Zhao

Yee is a full-time doctoral researcher in the first year of her PhD programme, which is funded jointly by Loughborough University and the China Scholarship Council. Yee’s research sits at the intersection of contemporary feminist life writing and age studies, exploring themes of ageing and older age in a range of contemporary anglophone life writing. Her project is supervised by Professor Siân Adiseshiah and Professor Clare Hutton.

In 2023, Yee completed an MA in English Literature in the School of Foreign Studies at Hebei University, China. During her MA, Yee focused on American Chinese life writing. She successfully passed the committee’s review and graduated with high scores. Her Master’s thesis was about Amy Tan’s life writing and trauma.

Yee also completed her BA in Russian Language in China in 2020, where she specialized in Russian Translation. She was taught multiple languages during her BA and became familiar with different cultures.

Suprvisors:  Professor Siân Adiseshiah and Professor Clare Hutton

Yee’s research involves analysing multiple examples of contemporary life-writing authored by female writers who write in English. With a focus on ageing in contemporary women’s life writing, this research intends to demonstrate how older women’s narratives of later life are constrained and shaped by growing old within the context of a youth-focused ageist Western culture. Her thesis explores the challenges that emerge when striving to articulate subjectivity, identity, and illness in later life, while working within the generic demands of life writing, including the subgenres of biography/autobiography, memoirs, journals, letters, and other forms. Within the context of the prevalence of older female invisibility within contemporary culture, Yee’s research examines the potential of life writing to challenge this invisibility and to recognize older female life.