At Beloit College, Mingyi majored in political science, and minored in European studies and German. She earned a master’s at the University of Cologne (Germany) in 2020, and recently was awarded her doctorate from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). Her dissertation is titled: The Power of Invisibility - Caretaker Governments in Advanced Parliamentary Democracies, 1945-2022. She will be continuing her comparative politics research at the University of Mannheim (Germany) thanks to a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Mingyi studied abroad in Germany at the Universitat Trier, and received a Beloit College Venture Grant to travel to five concentration camp sites in Germany and Austria. She was a teaching assistant for professor of Political Science John Rapp (retired), served as an academic senator, and was involved in campus sustainability efforts. A member of the track and cross-country teams, Mingyi remains an avid runner. She just completed a half-marathon mountain race in the French-speaking part of the Alps.

Congratulations, Dr. Zhang! We could not be prouder of your accomplishments and look forward to reading your work on advanced democracies!