Dr. Xiaoyue Zhang is a pianist, scholar, and educator with an interdisciplinary background in post-structural, affect theory, New Music, and postwar art to apply to the post-qualitative research methods. Her work at major cultural institutions explores cross-disciplinary approaches to contemporary artistic expression through arts-based research (ABR).

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Her recent research draws on Deleuze and Guattari's philosophical concepts to explore music becoming-minor in performance spaces. Through three key live music performance events—two at New York City music venues and one at a major academic conference on affect theory—this research maps how various bodies (human and non-human ones, including those of musicians, researchers, materials, and technologies) form assemblages that deterritorialize conventional musical and academic structures. She presents how New Music generates novel sonic possibilities, while also demonstrating how academic research itself might undergo processes of becoming-minor.

 

She has formed meaningful partnerships with acclaimed contemporary musicians and artists, including pianist Ning Yu and innovative composers David Bird and Aaron Einbond. These creative alliances enable her to transform theoretical concepts into lived artistic experiences, pushing the boundaries between diverse art and academic forms while exploring uncharted sonic territories.

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Dr. Zhang earned her Doctor of Education from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University in 2025. There, she was mentored by Prof. Jonathan Eakle and guided by Prof. Elizabeth A. St. Pierre, a leading scholar in post-structural and feminist theory. Before she entered graduate school, she completed a B.F.A. with a dual major in musicology and piano performance, laying the foundation for her interdisciplinary research at the intersection of music, art, philosophy, and pedagogy.