Hi! My name is Ke Fang 方可 (first and last names are in reverse order in Chinese). I also go by Kay since many people may be confused about pronouncing “Ke” (Kuh, third-tone in Chinese). This is my first blog so I’m just going to introduce myself a bit and please not that all opinions expressed here are my own, and I don’t represent anyone else. I am from Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, located in northwest China. It’s neither near Beijing nor Shanghai, which most people would use as a coordinate in their mind to visualize the Chinese map. However, if you draw an outer circle around China, Lanzhou is, interestingly, the center of the geometry. I personally think Lanzhou is mostly famous for beef noodles, which uses hand-pulled noodles (an amazing technique!) with clear-broth made from beef bones. And I’m constantly longing for it at breakfast and lunch, so please be in touch if you know any good beef noodle restaurants in NYC 😉
(A map of Lanzhou from Wikipedia)
I received my Bachelor of Management in my hometown at Lanzhou University. I majored in accounting but soon fled and developed my interest in organizational psychology after meeting serveral amazing professors including Dr. Jie Ma and Dr. Yanxia Wang. I love how psychology is so creative and psychologists are constantly making new discoveries about ourselves. Thus, I ended up conducting several projects related to organizational psychology and did my thesis as a combination of business with psychology. Leaving my hometown where I was born and raised for 21 years, I am now in New York City. I’m currently pursuing my self-designed interdisciplinary master’s degree at NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and my primary advisor is Dr. Madalina Vlasceanu at the Psychology Department. I designed my program to understand the polarization and synchronization of group-level memories, emotions, and attitudes online that lead to collective action by combining methods from psychology, neuroscience, and sociology. When not doing research, I’m a big coffee lover. I have a whole set of coffee equipment at home, but unfortunately, I cannot bring them with me to the US. I like pour-over coffee, made by pouring hot water onto ground coffee beans. I typically enjoy light-roasted coffee with a fruity flavor (this wine-like fancy term basically means it’s sourer and less bitter). Apart from coffee, I enjoy visiting museums, which NYC is a perfect place for. I also like to explore NYC on foot and draw watercolor a bit. Before the pandemic, I also traveled a lot. I’ve been to India, Thailand, Vietnam, Combodia, Italy, Spain, France and UK (where I also spent one year during my high school) and, of course US. It’s always so fun to explore different cuture and meeting various people. 
(A picture of pour-over coffee from Wikipedia)