Guanchi Zhang

I am an Associate Professor of Law at Vermont Law and Graduate School, where my research explores the intersection of law, city, and political economy.

My scholarship addresses a central question: How can law manage the distributive conflicts inherent in urban development? I conduct comparative research on property, land use, and local government law in China and the United States. My work is organized around two interrelated domains: territory, or how the law constructs and divides urban space, and community, or how legal systems mediate competing claims to urban resources. My research has appeared in journals such as Political Geography, Washington University Global Studies Law Review, Law and Social Sciences, Public Law Study.

I am dedicated to fostering intellectual community beyond my own scholarship. I find great fulfillment in mentoring students and helping them discover their own voices and passions. I frequently organize panels, reading groups, and workshops. For years, I co-organized and have remained actively engaged with the Urban China Speaker Series. You can join our mailing list here for the latest news of our events.

I hold an interdisciplinary Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in law and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Peking University, China.