- Send email
- Doctoral Research Hub – E Building
Yige Bao joined Loughborough University as a PhD researcher in October 2024 and holds a BA in Fine Art from Zhejiang Normal University, China, and an MA from the Glasgow School of Art, UK.
In addition to academic work, Bao maintains an independent art practice as a freelance artist. At this stage, Bao is a practice-based PhD researcher and artist whose work explores posthuman embodiment, female reproductive politics, and material agency.
Posthuman Female Reproduction and the Imagination of Alterity— Starting from the Narrative of the ‘Daughter Country’ in Journey to the West （Practice-based）
PGR Supervisors: Dr Rachael Grew and Dr James Bowen
Grounded in Posthumanism and female reproduction, this practice-based research investigates the influence of Western capitalism and patriarchy on the female body, exploring how female reproduction is increasingly reduced to a utilitarian function: a mechanism for producing life solely in service of economic, technological, and biopolitical systems within the context of neoliberal capitalism.
Through artistic practice, this research explores the potential of non-capitalised modes of female reproduction and further explores how the Posthuman body can be configured as a nomadic, processual site that resists humanist logics of representation. As a case study, this project draws on the narrative of the ‘Daughter Country’ from Journey to the West, using its as a speculative lens to introduce an East Asian perspective into the study.