Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Elena Meyer-Clement

Elena is an associate professor of China Studies at Copenhagen University. Before, she was assistant professor and vice director of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Elena started her research on rural China as a postdoctoral fellow in the German research network „Governance in China“, when she conducted research on local cadres’ urbanization strategies in rural areas. Elena has a doctoral degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Tuebingen and an MA in Chinese Studies and Political Science from the University of Hamburg. In her first book, Party Hegemony and Entrepreneurial Power in China: Institutional Change in the Film and Music Industries, she investigates the changing relationship between the party-state and private production companies in the cultural sector.

Contact
E-mail: elena.meyer.clement[at]hum.ku.dk

Dr. René Trappel

René is a comparative political scientist with a focus on rural China (agrarian change, local governance, collective land, urbanization, citizenship, participation, and poverty alleviation) and political change in East Asia (democratization and authoritarian resilience). He works as lecturer at the Institute of Chinese Studies at University of Freiburg. In the summer term 2018 René is the substitute professor for the Chair of Chinese Studies at the same institution. His latest monograph is China’s Agrarian Transition: Peasants, Property and Politics, published in 2016 with Lexington Books (see here for details).

Contact
E-mail: rene.trappel[at]sinologie.uni-freiburg.de
Homepage at the University of Freiburg

Doctoral researcher

Ms. Xiang Wang M.A.

Xiang was a doctoral candidate affiliated with this research project based at Free University of Berlin. Her research focus is the redevelopment of villages-in-the-city (chengzhongcun) in China’s megacities. Before joining the project, Xiang completed her Master of Arts degree in Chinese Studies at University of Würzburg, Germany. She grew up in Guangzhou, China and she has studied in Hong Kong, United States, and Japan. Her research interests include urbanization, migration, non-governmental organization, education policy, and social policy.

Contact
E-mail: xiang.wang[at]fu-berlin.de