Andrea Zhu

Andrea Zhu is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the environmental and climate politics of infrastructure development and international financial institutions. Her dissertation examines how multilateral development banks manage two sets of pressure from international civil society: first, longstanding demands to account for the environmental and social impacts of development; and second, emerging demands to scale up climate finance flows to developing countries. Her research seeks to revise theories of transnational advocacy and global institutional change to account for a more multipolar field of development finance institutions. Andrea holds a BA in development studies from Brown University. She is also a 2025–26 Global China predoctoral fellow at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.