ZLP

About me

Zoran Lee PecicDownload press photo

I'm a professor at NTNU in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture. My research sits at the intersection of queer studies, cinema and East Asian cultures, with a particular focus on how queer stories travel across the Global South—from the Caribbean to China.

I've spent significant time living and working in Denmark, China and Hong Kong. That geographical mobility has shaped how I think about culture, belonging and the stories that don't quite fit national narratives.

My first book, Queer Narratives of the Caribbean Diaspora (2013), examined queer Caribbean literature. My second, New Queer Sinophone Cinema (2016), looked at queer films from the PRC, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I've also co-edited an interdisciplinary volume on postcolonial Europe.

Beyond academic writing, I was Programme Director for the Copenhagen Asian Film Festival and regularly speak to Danish media about East Asian popular culture.

Research interests

Teaching

I teach and coordinate two modules at NTNU focused on gender, equality and diversity.

KULT3305

Theories of Gender, Equality and Diversity

15 credits · Master’s level · Autumn 2026 · Trondheim
Module Coordinator

This is where big ideas become useful tools. Students meet key theories of gender, equality and diversity, then test what those theories can actually do in academic writing and in the early stages of a master’s thesis.

In the module, students:
  • read established and contemporary theory across the humanities and social sciences
  • work with gender in relation to race, ethnicity, sexuality and class
  • learn to spot different theoretical positions and explain what is at stake
  • develop ideas for their own master’s projects through writing, discussion and seminars
View the official module page
KULT2221

Gendered Intersections in Popular Culture

15 credits · Intermediate level · Spring 2027 · Trondheim
Module Coordinator

Popular culture is never just background noise. This module uses film, television, music, games, fashion, advertising and digital media to ask how ideas about gender and difference are made, repeated and challenged in everyday life.

In the module, students:
  • analyse popular culture through gender, sexuality, race, class and disability
  • explore themes such as heteronormativity, racism, sexism, colonialism, equality and inclusion
  • use intersectional concepts to read specific media and cultural productions
  • learn through lectures, classroom discussion and collaborative activities
View the official module page

Contributing teaching

I also contribute selected sessions to modules where my research connects with broader questions about migration, multiculturalism, gender and contemporary social life.

KULT1120

Migration and Multicultural Societies: Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality

15 credits · Foundation level · Autumn 2026 · Trondheim
My sessions: Racism and migration

What does belonging look like in a society shaped by movement, difference and unequal access to power? The module takes contemporary Norway as its starting point. In my sessions, we focus on racism and migration, looking at how borders, institutions and everyday encounters shape who is treated as belonging.

Across the module, students:
  • examine how racism operates through ideas, institutions and everyday practices
  • connect migration to questions of identity, belonging and unequal mobility
  • work with concepts such as discrimination, othering and intersectionality
  • consider how public debates frame migrants, minorities and multicultural society
Contributing lecturerView the official module page
KULT2206

Perspectives on Gender 2

15 credits · Intermediate level · Autumn 2026 · Trondheim
My sessions: Masculinity and queer studies

Gender is not treated here as a fixed box to tick. The module approaches it as a structure, a relationship and something made through culture and social life. My sessions bring masculinity into conversation with queer studies to ask how norms are produced, challenged and lived.

Across the module, students:
  • explore masculinity as a changing social and cultural formation
  • use queer studies to question norms around gender, sexuality and identity
  • consider how power shapes which bodies and lives appear ordinary or different
  • connect theory to contemporary debates and cultural examples
Contributing lecturerView the official module page

Experience and academic service

Some of the work I have done alongside research and teaching.

International experience

I previously worked at Shantou University in China and spent time as an Affiliate Fellow at the Centre for Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong.

Film programming

I was Programme Director of the Copenhagen Asian Film Festival, where I helped bring Asian cinema to wider audiences in Scandinavia.

Academic leadership

I have headed the Norwegian Research School for Gender Research and organised doctoral training in gender and diversity studies.

Service and collaboration

I contribute to doctoral education, academic committees and collaborative work across gender research, cultural studies and East Asian studies.

Supervision

I welcome PhD inquiries in queer cinema, East Asian screen cultures, migration and diaspora studies and postcolonial cultural studies. Please contact me by email.