Tianxin Chen

Tianxin Chen

Education

M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School
B.A. from Wesleyan University (Double Major in the College of Letters and Religion)

Biography

Tianxin Chen is a Ph.D. student with interests in ritual life, urban space, media and technology, the politics of affect and time, and the poetics of the uncanny in China. Tianxin explores how spiritual and psychic life can be a site for rethinking fantasies of authority, sovereignty, and collectivity with a focus on the question of form and mediation. He is also curious about the intersections of religion, spirituality, and technological imaginations that generate collective hopes and anxieties about mobility, immortality, outer space explorations, and possible futures. In a more abstract sense, Tianxin is intrigued by the Möbius strip’s resonance as a modern image, both as a time-loop and a hole with an empty center.

Outside of academic work, Tianxin enjoys wandering in the city, binge-watching nostalgic TV shows, crocheting small projects, and finding inspiration in tarot cards. With an irredeemable attachment to popular culture, Tianxin is convinced that even the most seemingly banal and reactionary archives hold precious insights into our intimate desires and collective values.