Zixian Liu

Trained in history, anthropology, and data analytics, Zixian Liu is now a PhD Candidate in history at the University of Toronto. His dissertation reveals that the attempts at extracting and using carbon energy in the borderline area have significantly shaped the trajectory of Chinese socialism. Reflecting upon technical and environmental politics, his project works across the divide between humans and nonhumans. He contends that in addition to miners and coal, the quest for mining bounded a large range of elements together, such as ethnicity, infrastructure, black markets, mountains, and highlands. The dynamics of this assemblage has not only exerted influence on the Mao era, but also un/intendedly facilitated China’s later embrace of certain environmental and economic practices associated with what we now call “neoliberalism.”

Supported by Ontario Trillium Scholarship, Jackman Humanities Junior Fellowship, and China and Inner Asia Council Research Grant, his thesis project is based on a coalfield community in Southwest China where he has conducted archival and fieldwork research for years. His research on social and environmental effects of industrialization and urbanization is recognized by Richard Charles Lee Student Leadership Award. In addition to researching, he has been teaching at the University of Toronto as a course instructor.