UC Davis anthropologist Li Zhang, an associate professor of anthropology at UC Davis who is studying the rise of psychotherapy in contemporary China, has been awarded a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded $8.2 million in fellowships this year to 190 artists, scholars and scientists in recognition of their stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. The 2008 fellows were selected from more than 2,600 applicants in the United States and Canada. The average grant was $43,000.

Zhang earned her bachelor's and master's degree in Chinese literature and literary theory at Peking University, a second master's in social relations at UC Irvine, and a Ph.D. in anthropology at Cornell University. Before joining UC Davis, she was a fellow at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.

Her first book, "Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population," is a scholarly look at how Chinese society has been affected by the large numbers of rural peasants who have "floated" into urban areas for work. Her soon-to-be completed second book will look at the social, cultural and political effects of the privatization of home ownership in China.

Zhang is at work now on an examination of the increasing popularity of psychotherapy in urban China, a movement she calls the "inner revolution." The Guggenheim fellowship will enable her to take time off from teaching next year to pursue her research full time.

"I am deeply honored and very excited about the time I'll have to work on my new project," she said.

Seventeen University of California researchers received 2008 Guggenheim fellowships -- more than any other university system.

The New York-based foundation announced the awards last week. Since 1925, the foundation has granted more than $265 million in fellowships to almost 16,500 individuals.