Research Interests

• urban political economy/ecology, post-human urban theories, planning culture and politics, new towns, mega-infrastructure, China's great urban transformation, research methodologies

Education background

• PhD 2016              The Ohio State University, USA.
• M.A. 2010             The Ohio State University, USA.
• B. Eng. 2007  Nanjing University, China.

employment history

• 2020-present         Assistant Professor, Center for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology
• 2018-2020             Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Southern University of Science and Technology
• 2017-2018             Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Public Policy, City University of Hong Kong

Publications

• Lili Wang (forthcoming). China’s New Town Movements since 1949: A State/Space Perspective. Progress in Planning.
• Hao Chen, Lili Wang (corresponding author), Paul Waley (2019). The Right to Envision the City? The Emerging Vision Conflicts in Redeveloping Historic Nanjing, China. Urban Affairs Review.
• Lili Wang, Xiaoling Zhang (2019). Making an Urban Ecotopia in China: Knowledge, Power, and Governmentality: Space, Scale and Governance in the New Urban Era. In Xiaoling Zhang (ed.) Remaking Sustainable Urbanism: Space, Scale, and Governance in the New Urban Era. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hao Chen, Lili Wang, Jingxiang Zhang (2018) State spatial selectivity and the property-led development of urban new town in China: A case study of Hexi New Town in Nanjing. Human Geography, 33 (5): 63-70. (in Chinese)
• Lili Wang (2014). Uneven ‘Right to the City’: Theorizing the New Communal Living Space and a New Form of Urban Politics in China. In Youqin Huang and Siming Li eds. Polarized Residential Landscape in Transitional Chinese Cities: Housing Inequality and Residential Differentiation in Chinese Cities. New York: Routledge.
• Jingxiang Zhang, Lili Wang, Zhendong Luo (2009). Multi-dimensional Scanning of Urban Mega-Projects in the Context of Globalization. Human Geography, (4): 1-5. (in Chinese)
• Lili Wang, Jingxiang Zhang (2008). Investigation on Urban Mega-Projects and Its Effects within a Global Context. Urban Planning International, 23 (6): 53-58. (in Chinese)
• Lili Wang (2007). Example Research of the Fitness of Urban Ecological Niche- Using 13 Cities of Jiangsu Province as Examples. Modern Urban Research, (3): 73-80. (in Chinese)

research GRANTS

• 2019-2020      Guangdong Province Key Research Platforms and Projects – Young and Innovative Talents Program (as PI; Project Title: Metro China: A Chinese Case of Cyborg Urbanization), Education Department of Guangdong Province
• 2019-2023      Key Program (as team member; Project Title: Transitional Development and Governance of Small Towns in China), National Natural Science Foundation of China
• 2017-2019      The National Science Fund for Young Scholars (as Co-PI; Project Title: Urban Declining Induced by Hyper-investment in the New Towns of Three- or Four-Tier Cities in China: A Case Study of Typical New Towns in Jiangsu), National Natural Science Foundation of China
• 2013-2015      The Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (as PI; Project Title: Becoming Hexi: The Birth and Life of a Modern Chinese New Town), National Science Foundation of the US
• 2012        Office of International Affairs Graduate Student Grant (as PI, Project Title: The Politics of Urban Planning in China: State, Economy and Society)
• 2010        Mershon Center for International Security Studies Student Grant (as PI, Project Title: Artful repression and rightful revolt: The Chinese state and homeowners in action)

conference Presentations

• 2020/09   “A third force? Contesting the roles of intellectuals in reshaping historic neighborhoods in Nanjing, China,” AAS-in-Asia: Asia at the Cross Roads, Kobe, Japan
• 2019/11   “Mass Rapid Transit and China’s Evolving Metropolitanism,” Forum of Urban Culture Research in Hangzhou-Shenzhen and Greater Bay Areas, Hangzhou, China
• 2019/6     “Synekism in the Past and the Near Future: A Research Framework,” 2019 Urban China Research Network Conference, Nanjing, China
• 2019/6     “Synekism and (Mega-) Urban Regions in the Four (?) Industrial Revolutions: A Thought Experiment,” The 2019 International Conference on Urban China Development, Beijing, China
• 2019/6     “Cyborgian Thinking in Global Urban Studies,” Urban Studies in the Intelligent Era, Shenzhen, China
• 2018/12   “Cyborg-Urbanism in the East Asian Context: A Research Agenda,” the Fourth Asian Conference on Geography, Guangzhou, China
• 2017/6     “Making an Urban Ecotopia: Knowledge, Power, and Governmentality,” Workshop of “Remaking sustainable urbanism: space, scale, and governance in the new urban era” at City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• 2015/4     “Exploring the Ethnography of the Chinese State: Party, State, Urban Development,” 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, USA.
• 2014/7    “Practicing Economic Geography in the Field - Past and Present,” 2014 Economic Geography Summer Institute, Frankfurt, Germany.
• 2013/4    “Becoming Hexi: The Heterotopias and Governmentalities of (Building) a Chinese New Town,” 2013 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, USA.
• 2012/12 “Uneven ‘Right to the City’: Theorizing the New Communal Living Space and a New Form of Urban Politics in China,” 2012 International Conference on Spatial and Social Transformation in Urban China, Hong Kong, China.
• 2012/2    “Envision a Critical China Geography,” 2012 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, USA.
• 2012/2    “The Embedded Chinese State: Understanding Homeowners’ Resistance in China,” 2012 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York.
• 2011/4    “Small Property Right Room, Not a Small Issue: Housing, Accumulation, and the State in Urbanizing Rural China,” 2011 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Seattle, USA.
• 2010/4    “Conflicts and Struggles over Living Space: Home-Owners' Committees in Chinese Cities,” 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington, D.C., USA.

courses

Spring 2020                The City and Technology (SS082)

Fall 2019                    World Regional Geography (SS067)

Spring 2019                Introduction to Globalization (SS047)