Cosmopolis Lunch Seminar w/ Xuefei Ren

Cosmopolis Lunch seminars
The Cosmopolis Lunch Seminars are meetings hosted by Cosmopolis, which allow researchers from within and outside of the research group to share progress and findings of their research on urban issues. Every presentation is a starting point for a larger debate on urban research issues tackled by all the participants. During 1h15, there is a presentation or debate with one or more (guest) speaker and ample time for further conversation with all present. Afterwards, we take a collective break (we provide desserts!) where conversations can continue in an informal setting.

Rethinking Southern Urbanism from the Periphery | Xuefei Ren

We provide dessert for the break after the seminar. Please register if you want to join and/or enjoy the dessert! 

Prof. Xuefei Ren (Department of Sociology, Michigan State University) will present her research on rethinking Southern urbanism from the periphery offering reflections about reconceptualising the new urban political economy through the lens of geopolitics, climate change, and peripheral regions.

Xuafei Ren

Xuefei Ren is a comparative urbanist who studies urban governance and the built environment in comparative perspective. She is the author of three award-winning books: Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs, Slum Clearance, and the War on Air Pollution (Princeton University Press, 2020), Urban China (Polity, 2013), and Building Globalization: Transnational Architecture Production in Urban China (University of Chicago Press, 2011). She is a Public Intellectual Fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and a fellow in the Humanity’s Urban Future program of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). She has served as a co-editor for Journal of Urban Affairs, City and Community, and on the editorial board of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Her research has been supported by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, Urban Studies Foundation, CIFAR, and Swiss National Science Foundation.