Dr. Xuefei Ren, an associate professor of Sociology and Global Urban Studies at Michigan State University presented her work titled “China’s Dr. Fauci: Medical Experts, Policymaking, and China’s Responses to Covid-19” on January 24, 2022. Dr. Ren’s talk brought attention to the role of medical experts in shaping China’s responses to covid-19. Her project is under construction, through which she compared three Chinese doctors—Zhong Nanshan, Li Wenliang, and Zhang Wenhong and illustrated the difficulties of their engagement with the state and media and the expressions of their thoughts and ideas. In addition, Dr. Ren also discussed China’s zero-covid policy—how it came about and how sustainable it was. Dr. Ren believed that the zero-covid goal has been heavily politicized and eliminating covid-19 has been given more priority than people’s health, privacy, and dignity.
Currently, Dr. Ren is working on two projects. The first examines how the covid-19 pandemic has changed urban governance in North America, Europe, China, and India. Funded by Urban Studies Foundation, she collaborates with Roger Keil and Philip Harrison on a pilot study on covid-19 and urban governance in Chicago, Toronto, and Johannesburg. This project compares the policies enacted to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic in these three cities, in areas such as housing, employment, and public health. On China and India, Dr. Ren is also interested in examining regional variations in covid-19 responses in these countries. Her second project is on urban revitalization in Harbin, Detroit, and Turin. Dr. Ren focuses on cultural events, institutions and policies, and examines how the local government and urban planners use “culture” to reinvent these postindustrial cities.
Dr. Ren’s recent publications include articles such as “The peripheral turn in global urban studies” (South Asia Interdisciplinary Academic Journal), “Suburbs and urban peripheries in a global perspective” (City & Community), and “The urban century of China and India,” Chicago Council on Global Affairs). Her book Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum Clearance and the War on Air Pollution (2020, Princeton University Press) won an honorable mention in the Dennis Judd Best Book Award on Urban Politics, American Political Science Association in 2021.
Dr. Ren Xuefei is a fellow of the Public Intellectual Program (2021-2023), launched by National Committee on US-China Relations. Dr. Ren lives in Chicago. She is also a runner, cyclist, and new skater.