International Studies Program faculty

I earned my PhD in political geography from UCLA in 2016. My research looks at the urban politics of place and the geopolitics of borders. I am particularly interested in Tibet and China’s borderlands. I am currently working on a book manuscript entitled The Concrete Plateau: Urbanization as Civilizing Machine on the Tibetan Plateau. Based on interviews and participant observation, the book looks at the social and political pressures faced by Tibetan migrants as they move to Xining, the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. My other research has explored topics including how the China’s Belt and Road Initiative has influenced experiences of mobility at the Sino-Kazakh border and the aesthetic politics of post-BRI maps of China. I speak Chinese and Amdo Tibetan.

In the Fall, I teach the lab section of the course Where on Earth…?. In the Spring I lecture on Global China and the Belt and Road Initiative and Contested Borders between Security and Migration. When I am not reading and writing, I enjoy hiking, trying new cuisines, and spending time with my family. Having recently lived on the Tibetan Plateau, in southern California, and in montane Colorado, I am excited to explore New England, which is new terrain for me.