Johanna von Pezold is a postdoctoral researcher at the ERC ChinaAfricaFashionPower project (chinaafricafashionpower.org). She is affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and the UvA Media Studies Department, where she is also teaching. 

With a background in Chinese Studies, Johanna has been conducting ethnographic research on Chinese fashion in Africa for more than six years. After studying in Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Oxford, and Beijing, she recently graduated with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Hong Kong, examining the creation of fashion in the trade and retail of Chinese-made garments and textiles in Mozambique. She has worked for various think tanks and management consulting firms in Germany, Brazil, and China, and was the first recipient of the CHAT Research Grant, awarded by the Hong Kong Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile.

Johanna is especially interested in transnational flows of non-Western fashion and material culture, interactions between global commodity production and local consumer cultures, and China’s relations to the Portuguese-speaking world.

PhD in Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Departmental Visiting Student, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, UK

Associate Researcher, Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique   

Visiting Student, Peking University, Beijing, China

MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Oxford, UK

BA in Ecomony and Culture of China, Universität Hamburg, Germany

Visiting Student, Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil                                                                     

Research Assistant, Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Summer Associate, McKinsey & Company, Hamburg, Germany        

Visiting Associate, Boston Consulting Group, Hamburg, Germany  

Research Intern, BRICS Policy Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Intern, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Beijing, China     

Marketing Intern, Herrenknecht AG, Shanghai, China

Teaching Assistant, Greentown Yuhua School/German Commission for UNESCO, Hangzhou, China                                                                                                 

CHAT 2021 Research Grant
For an individual research project by the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong

Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme                                                                                                      
Full four-year scholarship by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council

EU Window Chinese Government Scholarship                                                                 
Full scholarship for one semester at Peking University by the China Scholarship Council 

Prize for the best final presentation in Chinese                                                          
Book prize by the Oxford University Language Centre

The Harold Bailey Prize for outstanding performance in Asian Studies           
Book prize by St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford 

DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Graduate Scholarship                           
Full scholarship for a one-year master’s degree course at the University of Oxford 

Studienstiftung (German Academic Scholarship Foundation) Scholarship       
Full five-year scholarship

von Pezold, J. (2023): ‘The global reach of the Hong Kong textile industry – an unlikely success story in West Africa’, CHAT MILL6 publication.

Tse, T. and von Pezold, J. (2023): ‘Memories reminisced, reconciled, renewed: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes and their search for a congruent self’, Journal of Consumer Culture.

von Pezold, J. and Tse, T. (2022): ‘Luxury consumption and the temporal-spatial subjectivity of Hong Kong men’, Consumption Markets & Culture.

von Pezold, J. (2022): ‘Co-constructing fashion in a South-South context: Selling Chinese-made garments and textiles in Mozambique’, Critical African Studies. 

von Pezold, J. and Driessen, M. (2021): ‘Made in China, fashioned in Africa: Ethnic dress in Ethiopia and Mozambique’, Africa  91/1: 317-36. 

von Pezold, J. (2020): ‘Fashion and China-Africa relations’, Hong Kong Review of Books.

von Pezold, J. (2019): ‘‘It is good to have something different’: Mutual fashion adaptation in the context of Chinese migration to Mozambique’, Asia Pacific Perspectives 16/1: 34-64.

von Pezold, J. (2018): ‘Mögliche Einflüsse Mao Zedongs auf die Strategie des IS’ [Possible Influences of Mao Zedong on ISIS Strategy]. In: Hansen, S. and Krause, J. (eds.) Jahrbuch Terrorismus 2017/18 [Terrorism Yearbook 2017/18], Verlag Barbara Budrich, 331-48. (in German)