Xuenan Cao

About

Xuenan Cao is a scholar of media, technology, and cultural studies whose research explores the relationship between technological development, social systems, and cultural imagination. She is Professor and Chair of General Education at San Francisco Bay University and serves as adjunct faculty in Cultural Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She previously taught at Duke University, New York University Shanghai, and Yale University. Cao earned her PhD in Communication and Media Studies from Duke University. Her interdisciplinary scholarship spans the humanities and computer science, with publications addressing media theory, digital culture, artificial intelligence, and the cultural consequences of technological change. Her work has appeared in journals including PMLA, Grey Room, Theory, Culture & Society, and Information, Communication & Society. Her book Chinese Media Improvisations: Thriving on Deficits (2026), published by Stanford University Press, examines how resource shortages and political pressures have shaped China’s media history and technological imagination, from print culture to contemporary AI applications. Drawing on her personal experiences growing up in China and extensive archival research, Cao challenges conventional assumptions about innovation and technological progress.