Dr Thomas White

Thomas is a Lecturer in China and Sustainable Development. He has a PhD and MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, and a BA from the University of Oxford.

He has previously worked at the University of Cambridge, and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Thomas studied for a Diploma in Mandarin at SOAS, before living and working for several years in China.

His first monograph, 'China's Camel Country: Livestock and Nation-Building at a Pastoral Frontier', will be published in 2024. His articles have appeared in international journals such as Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Research

• Political Ecology
• China's Borderlands
• Pastoralism, Agriculture and Rural Development
• Infrastructure
• Sino-Mongolian Relations
• The Belt and Road Initiative
• Science and Technology Studies

Thomas' research draws on perspectives from Social Anthropology, Geography and China Studies to examine interrelated social, economic and ecological transformations in China's borderlands, and the centrality of these ‘peripheries’ to projects of nation-building, state environmentalism, and transnational economic connectivity.

In his new research, he studies emerging forms of interaction across the Sino-Mongolian border. His current project looks at meat and livestock export from Mongolia to China, and its relationship to fragile local ecologies, biosecurity infrastructures, and shifting geopolitics.

Teaching

• Environment, Sustainability, and Climate Change in China
• Contemporary Chinese Society: Change and Transformation

PhD supervision

Thomas welcomes enquiries from prospective students interested in:

• contemporary social and economic transformations in rural China
• the local implementation and social effects of China’s environmental policies
• China’s borderlands and their interaction with neighbouring countries
• grounded studies of global China
• the social life of Chinese infrastructure

Further details

See Thomas' research profile