Chenyu Deng

Class of 2025

Faculty Advisor: Regina Pieck

Peer Mentor: Mercedes Martinez Milantchi

Chenyu Deng was born and raised in Hangzhou, China. She graduated with honors from Peking University with a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature. Her coursework included literature, history, sociology, Spanish-Chinese translation, and cultural studies.

Chenyu is particularly interested in gender-based violence, sexual-gender identities, and the transgression of dichotomous logic in the narratives of 20th and 21st-century writers in Latin America. Her undergraduate thesis focused on Selva Almada’s writing of femicides in Argentina in the book Dead Girls, exploring how texts, as part of a community, interact with their context and society. She currently volunteers to provide language support (Spanish) for Asian women who are exposed to gender-based violence and discrimination.

As a Master’s student at CLAS, Chenyu intends to further explore these issues with a multidisciplinary approach by taking courses in literature, sociology, and history, while engaging in dynamic, thought-provoking conversations. Chenyu envisions that through her experience at Stanford, she will gain a deeper understanding of the role of literary texts in Latin American societies and beyond.

In her free time, Chenyu enjoys listening to music (with no specific preferences), learning and teaching languages, and sightseeing.