Zhiying Ma

Zhiying Ma is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, as well as a faculty affiliate of the University's Center for East Asian Studies and Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. 

She is a cultural and medical anthropologist and a scholar of disability studies. Her work in general examines how cultural, politico-economic, and technological factors shape the design and implementation of social policies, and how national policies and global development initiatives in turn impact health in/equity, vulnerability, and rights, with a focus on contemporary China.

Asst. Prof. Ma's book project, tentatively titled Intimate Institutions: Governance and Care Under the Mental Health Legal Reform in Contemporary China, examines families' involvement in the care and management of persons diagnosed with serious mental illnesses in China. She has also been conducting a new project on the reemergence of community mental health in China, as well as a few smaller-scale projects on disability rights in the country.