Hi there! Welcome to my website!

My name is Pengfei Zhao and I am an assistant professor of qualitative research methodology at the University of Florida.

I have interdisciplinary background in inquiry methodology, sociology, and cultural studies. My methodological writing addresses key issues in the field of qualitative inquiry such as validity, language and representation, qualitative data analysis software, and inference-making. In particular, I draw from critical theories, pragmatism, and feminism to formulate a praxis- and social justice- oriented research methodology.

I love conducting qualitative research because I have always been interested in understanding diverging life paths and varying lived experiences. I enjoy writing qualitative works, which makes me feel my life converges with others’ and together we are moving forward to a shared world of mutual understanding and inclusion.

I ground my methodology work in long-term, multi-method empirical studies conducted in China and in the United States. One of such research commitments examines the coming of age experience of rural Chinese youth during and right after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Based on this project, I am completing a book manuscript entitled Changing Fate: The Cultural Revolution’s Rural Youth in Transition to Post-Mao China. Besides, I am also engaged in empirical studies on student-centered teaching and learning and comprehensive sexuality education. Together with three colleagues, I have published a research method textbook entitled Making Sense of Social Research Methodology: A Student- and Practitioner-Centered Approach (Sage, 2021).