About
Xiaoyue Y. Li is a Ph.D. Candidate at the History Department, University of Michigan. He specializes in the modern Middle East and Africa, global history of imperialism and colonialism, and science, technology, and society studies (STS).
Xiaoyue's research focuses on the interplay of infrastructure, colonialism, political economy, and everyday politics. His Ph.D. dissertation, "Taming the Iron Horse: Austerity, Subversion, and Revolution in Colonial Egyptian Railways, 1876-1922," draws attention to the shaping of colonial development of technology and the economy, social relations, and ecological landscape in Egypt. He examines how critical yet vexing ideas of balanced budget, public security, and rationalized management played into policy-making of the British-controlled railway administration. His work also features people and things on the colonial discursive peripheries, who raised contending visions of Egyptian moderntieis and sought to expand technological possibilities and to reshape social relations.
Xiaoyue's harbors a wide range of scholarly interests, including technology-/infrastructure-induced social inequality, invigoration and melancholy of the global left, and the (de)construction of the Third World.
Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/xiaoyueli
Fields of Study
- Modern Middle East and Africa
- Science and Technology Studies (STS)
- Infrastructure Studies
- Poitical Economy
- Global History
- Colonialism and Nationalism
- Postcolonial Theory
