Biography

I have been a PhD student at the Unit of Social Anthropology at the University of Fribourg since autumn 2024, where I am participating in the SNSF research project ‘Digital Agriculture: Sino-European Contrasts, Correspondences and Collaborations’ led by Dr. Lena Kaufmann. The project explores the challenges and opportunities of agricultural digitalisation through drones, and uses this as a case for understanding broader reconfigurations of global hierarchies of digital technologies and knowledge. The objective of my doctoral thesis is to critically examine the socio-technical aspects of agricultural drones in the Sino-German context based on ethnographic fieldwork methods. Drawing on diverse perspectives from farmers, grassroots innovators, local officials, and industrial experts, my doctoral thesis attempts to shed light on the inconsistences between high-tech imaginaries of digitalisation represented by the drone industry and state policies, and on-the-ground practices and experiences of farmers and diverse local actors. By adopting an actor-centred methodological approach, my doctoral thesis adds important nuances to the adoption of Chinese agricultural drones in a transnational context. 

Before coming to Fribourg, I completed an MA in Asian Studies at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University. I was awarded the Lund University Global Scholarship based on my academic merits. My MA thesis project develops an actor-centred analytical framework in the study of overseas remittances, rural development, and livelihoods in rural Guangdong based on qualitative fieldwork methods. I also hold an MSc in Research for International Development from SOAS, University of London. My broader research interest concerns agricultural technology, migration, and rural development in relation to both domestic and global China.