Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology
About
I am a PhD candidate in the department of anthropology. I have conducted fieldwork in the Hakka people residential area in Guangdong Province, Southeast China.
My dissertation "Numbering Land: Ethical Measures of Subjectivity and Geography in Rural Refrom" seeks to understand how people use numbers to make sense of social relations and their material environments. The overarching question I will explore is: How are numerical practices mediated by people's ethical judgments, political ideologies, and physical embodiment? My work shows that numbers carry with themselves cultural and spiritual signicances. The project is situated in the ongoing land reform in rural China, which will push forward the previous de-collectivization reform by validating the up-to-date land information and legitimizing land usage right. My project explores how numbers become a disturbing actor in governance, kin relations, and inhabitation during both everyday life and extrodinary social transformations.
Research Focus:
quantification, place and space, ethics, language ideology, environment, kinship
My Research has been supported by:
- SSRC-IDRF
- NSF-DDIG
- Wenner-Gren
- Rackham International Research Award
- LRCCS Center of China Studies Research Award
