She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University's History Department and her undergraduate degree from the University of Florence. Her interest is in Modern Chinese History, with special focus on nation building and national identity, economic thought, and memory. Zanasi published Saving the Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China (Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press) in 2006, and currently has a manuscript in preparation, "Minsheng ( ): Livelihood and Consumption in Modern China."