Postdoctoral Affiliate
I am an anthropologist who completed my DPhil at the University of Oxford in 2024 with a thesis on contemporary Chinese homes. My research explored the ongoing process of home-making in Shanghai, examining cases ranging from apartment refurbishments to everyday aesthetic engagements with the materiality and design of domestic spaces. The thesis conceptualises the home as a process which is dynamic, adaptive, and in a perpetual state of flux. It is through the making, remaking, and even unmaking of the home within specific circumstances that individuals construct their own personal meanings associated with it. This thesis also emphasises the co-constitutive relationships between people and the material or immaterial environment of their domestic space.
My fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how this global crisis reshaped individuals’ living experiences and redefined the home’s significance within broader urban and national frameworks. Drawing on diverse participant narratives and my own observations and experiences, I argue that home-making is a process of prioritising relationships, experiences, aspirations, aesthetics, and navigating uncertainty. My work reveals how homes in Shanghai serve as spaces where the past is remembered, the present is experienced, and the future is imagined, offering a nuanced view of urban Chinese life both in times of crisis and everyday normalcy.
Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a Public Education Specialist at the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum and as an Academic Associate at NYU Shanghai. I hold an MA in Material and Visual Culture from University College London, where I studied local community exhibition practices on the outskirts of London, and a Bachelor of Laws in International Politics from Fudan University.
Research Interests:
Material and visual anthropology, art and aesthetics, home, museums, design, and urban anthropology.
