Zhaxi Duojie

Dissertation title: 

Tibetan Farmers in Transition:  Urbanization, Development and Labor Migration in Amdo.  

Research

My dissertation research focuses on the relationships between state development projects and urban labor migration and how the cultural politics of contemporary Chinese modernity shapes decisions about both house-building and migration. Using ethnographic methods, my doctoral research project examines how social, cultural, political-economic factors intersect to influence Tibetan labor migration and with what effects on Tibetan identities in Amdo, situated in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, and how experiences of urban living, in turn, change the aspirations and identities of Tibetan labor migrants. In my research, I conceive migration as a political process rather than an economic event and make migrant identities and subjectivities a focus of analysis. 

Honors and Awards

December 22, 2016. The Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences Research Grant, University of Colorado, Boulder. “Tibetan Farmers in Transition: Urbanization, Development and Labor Migration in Amdo,” $1,000

September 22, 2017: Mabel Duncan memorial Scholarship Award, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, $3,000

March 1, 2018: Awarded an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) grant. The award will support his dissertation research project titled "Tibetan Farmers in Transition: Urbanization, Development, and Labor Migration in Amdo."

Faculty Advisor: Emily Yeh