Zhange Ni

 

Zhange Ni is a second-year Ph.D. student in Religion and Literature in the Divinity School.

Raised in Suzhou, China, Zhange received her B.A. from Peiking University in 1999, with a major in English Literature. She received her M.A. in Theology from Fordham University in 2002.

I would describe the Divinity School as a place where intellectual pursuits are at once demanding and rewarding. This is a place where one is obliged to work hard, with whole-hearted devotion and persistent striving—but the process is most enjoyable, in that one benefits from the guidance and encouragement of the faculty, whose comprehensive knowledge, penetrating insights, insatiable interests, and care for students are all remarkable. Moreover, fellow students with various backgrounds, yet all sharing the same degree of commitment, are sources not only of provocative thoughts and different perspectives, but also, more importantly, friendship.

My own area of study is Religion and Literature. The RL faculty have a wide range of interests, such as Chinese literature, American cultural studies, and medieval and Renaissance literature in England and on the continent. They also strongly encourage us to adventure into unexplored areas, offering invaluable help in the formation of our intellectual projects. Since extensive possibilities are provided for students pursuing studies more comparative and cross-cultural in nature, I, as a Chinese student with a background in Western literature as well as a fascination with my native literary tradition, find these possibilities particularly exciting.

The focus of my intellectual investigation is the interaction of religion and literature in the contemporary world, especially the world of the disenfranchised, marginalized, and exiled. To borrow a term from liberation theology, I would like to commit my “preferential option” to the poor (where the term “poor,” as explicated by Leonardo Boff and other theologians, does not refer exclusively to those people who are economically deprived). When I entered the Divinity School, I already had in mind this general interest. With the help of the faculty and my fellow students here, I have been able to focus my studies more precisely, concentrating on contemporary diaspora writing (especially Chinese diaspora writing in North America), and offering my own readings from within the context of religious pluralism, relativism, communication, and conflict. In this sense, my project is decidedly comparative.

I know of no place aside from the Divinity School and the University of Chicago where I would have access to all the resources needed for my interreligious, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural project. In addition to training in the historical background of religion and literature, as well as in the criticism of religious and secular texts, in the Divinity School, I can also study American poetry in the English department, Chinese drama in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and literary theories and methods in the Department of Comparative Literature—all of which contribute to a more informed approach to my project.