Speaking and teaching
Youyou takes great joy in democratizing the power of data visualization. Drawing on her data storytelling practice across journalism and non-journalism settings, she helps clients and students globally use data visualization to explain the world around them and to shape it for the better. She takes every occasion of teaching and speaking as a rare opportunity for continuous learning, where both she and her audience leave knowing more than when they arrived.
For speaking and teaching inquiries, please reach out at zhoyoyo.work [at] gmail.com.
Teaching
Lecturer, Data Storytelling, Columbia Journalism School's Lede Program, 2023–2025
I have been teaching a data storytelling class each summer since 2023 at Columbia Journalism School’s Lede Program. My part of the curriculum typically follows two formats: lectures that help students develop the mindset of seeing society through the lens of data visualization and hands-on sessions for students to learn to make web-based interactive graphics.
Guest Lecturer, Stanford Data Journalism Program, January 2026 and April 2019
January 2026: I joined the students at the Building News Apps class at Stanford to talk about my process and approach of designing a visual story, drawing examples of my work.
April 2019: I gave students a behind-the-scenes look of the year-long investigative project, Hurricane Maria's Dead, for which I was in charge of the data automation, collection, verification and the final visual presentation.
Guest Lecturer, Design Research, Writing and Criticism, School of Visual Arts, 2022–2025
I've been going to the thesis workshop in the MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism program at School of Visual Arts every year to teach the students how to employ the mindset of a data journalist and use data research in their thesis projects.
Training Workshop, World Bank's ECR Learning Academy, December 2023
I did a training workshop with the World Bank communications staff on "Communicating data effectively and using it to craft arguments"
Speaking
Speaker, Outlier Conference, Chicago, June 2024
I gave a talk on how to make arguments with data visualization.
Lightning Talk, Festival de Datos, Punta del Este, Uruguay, November 2023
I gave a talk on the power of making arguments with data at the Data for Development Festival in Uruguay.
Keynote Speaker, Go Viral Festival, Almaty, Kazakhstan, June 2021
I gave a keynote talk at the 2021 Go Viral Festival on "Covering the Covid-19 pandemic with data and visuals."
Speaker, Pulitzer Center & Northwestern University, April 2021
I was invited to speak with the students and faculty at Northwestern University on "Data, Science and Journalism in the age of Covid-19", organized by the Pulitzer Center.
Speaker, Konstfack University, January 2021
I was invited to speak at the 2021 Research Week at Konstfack University, Sweden's largest university for arts, crafts and design, on how data visualization was used in journalism.
Speaker, UNDP Digital Transformation Speakers Series, July 2020
I was invited to join the panel of Digital Transformation Speakers Series on Visual Journalism at UNDP, with Kurt Mutchler, senior photo editor of the National Geographic Magazine and Sergio Peçanha, graphic columnist at The Washington Post.
Speaker, SciVis NYC, November 2019
I was invited to speak at the 2019 SciVis conference in New York City. I gave a talk on "AI and big data are changing the medical field. What does it mean to you?" drawing examples of my journalistic research and work.
Speaker, The Art of Storytelling Festival, Almaty, Kazakhstan, September 2019
I gave a talk on "Building Things at Quartz" at The Art of Storytelling Festival in Almaty. The event was live translated into Kazakh, Russian and English.
Speaker, The Creators' Summit, Shanghai, China, May 2019
I gave a main-stage talk on "What can data journalism do?" (link in Chinese) in Shanghai, drawing on my experience working in a U.S. newsroom and observations of the development of data journalism in the U.S.
Speaker, NICAR 2019, Newport Beach, California, March 2019
Lightning talk: How to tell data stories in five minutes (tweet 1, tweet 2)
Panel speaker: Finding untold stories in unfamiliar communities
Panel speaker: How to make your data stories shine for different audiences
Panel Speaker, Data Storytelling NYC, July 2018
I showed my work at Quartz at the Data Storytelling NYC monthly meetup with graphics journalists from The New York Times, 538 and The Pudding.
Panel Speaker, NICAR 2018, Chicago, March 2018
Panel speaker for How to find reporting leads and publishable facts in text data you already have.
Panel Speaker, NYC Data Week, May 2018
I gave a talk with fellow women data visual practitioners on "Telling women's stories with data" at the annual NYC Data Week, in which I talked about my favorite work in this topic, "Women reading self-help books".