Wendi Zhou, double major in History and Philosophy, is featured in the article "The Rise of Generation Z" in the University of Washington Magazine.
Zhou is one of the founding editors for the UW student journal, The Historical Review at the UW. She won the 2021 Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Excellence in Scholarship Holocaust Paper Prize for her paper “'Shouldering Their Responsibilities’: Critical Refugee Studies and European Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, 1938-1945," and the Thomas A. Lederman Endowed Scholarship for 2021-2022. She is also a Sleizer Scholar and received a Mary Gates Research Scholarship to conduct historical research over the summer as part of the UW Summer Institute in the Arts & Humanities.
Wendi Zhou
The notion that Gen Z cares about race, equity and social good is true for Wendi Zhou, 18. Last spring, she won an award from the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies for a paper she wrote about Jewish refugees in Shanghai during World War II. Her findings countered representations of refugees as passive and helpless. A scholar-in-the-works, she’s double majoring in history and philosophy.
“I’m interested in the histories of race, gender and sexuality in societies that are grappling with the legacies of racism, colonial violence and other historical injustices,” she says. “I find that relevant to the issues that I care about today.”
She has also been active in the ASUW and serves on the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s student advisory board, which she is chairing this year.
As a freshman, Zhou conducted policy research for the ASUW Office of Government Relations for what would become legislation for a state-funded and state-administered student loan program for undocumented students. In April 2020, the governor signed the bill into law.
“I would describe myself as pretty bookish,” Zhou says. Simply put, she enjoys reading. She also likes creative writing, going for runs and hanging out with friends on Zoom.