Time: 2:00-3:30 PM, April 16

Location: CCT E4011

Speaker: Yadong Li, PhD candidate in Anthropology at Tulane University

Abstract:

Across the globe, governments are building ‘green’ infrastructures almost everywhere to confront ecological crises, yet most studies focus on iconic megaprojects rather than ordinary, low‑profile frontiers. Focusing on Taole, a multiethnic township on the edge of the Mu Us Desert in northwestern China, my ethnographic research examines how irrigation systems, shelterbelt forests, conservation fences, and microalgae ponds have sedimented over time to reorganize ecologies, aspirations, and everyday life. Treating Taole as an ‘ordinary frontier,’ I show how successive infrastructures and Chinese “ecological civilization” agenda are enacted, stretched, and reworked in everyday life, leaving behind sedimentary geological, ecological, and social traces.

Short bio of the presenter:

Yadong Li is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Tulane University, USA. He is set to begin his dissertation fieldwork this May. He is interested in environmental infrastructure, development programs and their implications, and senses of hope in East Asian contexts. His research lies at the intersection of ecological anthropology, frontier and borderland studies, and critical infrastructure studies.