Here we have Assassin and PunPun(which means Fat Fat in Chinese)

I am currently a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Penn in 2023, I completed my B.A. in both Philosophy and History at the University of Arizona.

Most of my research is motivated by a single question: how can we interpret the world in ways that help us change it? I aim to develop a theory of transformation — an account of how genuine emancipation from structural oppression can actually be achieved.

I have worked on various issues aimed at answering this question from different perspectives, including:

1. In our fragmented society, where people experience different kinds of oppression, what are the material structural conditions required for strong solidarities to actually arise?

2. In a world full of competing sovereign nation-states with drastically different wealth and power, how could we still have genuine international solidarity without becoming moral saints?

3. How useful is it to treat race as a key theoretical category for characterizing the global order, such as the Du Boisian "color line" or Charles Mills's concept of "Global White Supremacy"?

4. How can we theorize colonialism and imperialism in a way that properly acknowledges but nonetheless ultimately rejects popular nationalist sentiment — the idea that it is fundamentally about "them" invading "our" land?

5. What is the proper relationship between theory and practice — and more specifically, whether, why, and how most mainstream Western Marxism (both analytic and continental) gradually gave up the radical ambition of providing a theory of transformation?

To answer all these questions, I aim to take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on a diverse set of philosophical traditions(both analytic and continental/critical theory) and empirical disciplines, with a special focus on history, sociology, moral psychology, and political economy.

I was born and raised in Chongqing, a city known for its great night views and spicy food. I then went to high school in Des Moines, Iowa. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my cats, traveling to famous historical sites, reading manga, playing video games and board games/DnD, and collecting and assembling miniatures and models.

You can contact me via yuzhwill@sas.upenn.edu. Feel free to drop me an email to say hi (: