Xiangli Ding

Lecturer, History

Biography

Xiangli Ding was born and raised in central China. He received his B.A. at Henan Normal University and continued his study of history at Nanjing University. With the encouragement from his advisor at Nanda, he chose to travel abroad and pursue his Ph.D. in Asian history at the State University of New York at Buffalo. After spending seven years in the northeast, he is excited to experience the life in the south.

In the past two decades, Xiangli witnessed the pollution and disappearance of creeks, ponds and blue sky in his hometown. Therefore, his research interests include environmental history, social history, history of technology, and modern Chinese history. He focuses on the confluence of nature, technologies, economy, and political forces in modern China, and how that confluence has changed Chinese people’s lives and their relationship with the natural environment. His dissertation examines the rise of hydroelectricity in twentieth-century China. It argues that political powers, aided by hydro-technologies, consumed natural resources at an unprecedented pace and scale and, in the process, marginalized local communities in the making of the environ-technical regime in twentieth-century China.

At UAH, Xiangli teaches survey classes of world and East Asian history. He will also offer upper division classes on the environment, energy, and modern Chinese history.

When not working, Xiangli enjoys watching soccer games, cooking, cleaning, and spending time with his wife and two lovely daughters.

Xiangli Ding CV

Education

  • Ph.D., Asian History. Specialization: Environmental History of China, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2018
  • M.A., History of Modern China, Nanjing University, 2011
  • B.A., History Education, Henan Normal University, 2008

Classes Taught

Affiliations

  • Association for Asian Studies
  • Association for East Asian Environmental History
    • Chinese Historians in the United States

Publications

Manuscript in Submission
  • "Reservoir Displacement and Frontier Reclamation: A Study of the Sanmenxia Reservoir Resettlement from Henan to Gansu, 1956-1965" Modern China
    • Research Articles
    • "Save the Nation with Electricity Generation: A Study of the Hydroelectric Industry in Chongqing during the War of Resistance against Japan" Historical Research in Anhui(Hefei), Vol. 5, October 2017, pp.91-98(in Chinese)
    • "Arid Spring and Flooded Autumn: The Predicament of Eastern Henan Agricultural Society under the Impact of Climate and People during the Qing Dynasty" Journal of the Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development(Kaifeng), Vol. 11, December 2015, pp. 35-44. (in Chinese)
        • Book Reviews
        • "As Long as the Water is Under Control, the State is Under Control: Reviewing David A. Pietz, The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China" Modern Chinese History Studies(Beijing), Vol.6, December 2015, pp. 138-145. (in Chinese)
        • "Beyond Colonizing and Colonized: Reviewing Jun Uchida, Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876-1945" Cheng Kung Journal of Historical Studies(Taiwan), Vol.48, June 2015, pp. 281-290. (in Chinese)
        • "Gun, Fist, and the Imagination of Violence in Modern China: Reviewing William Rowe Crimson Rain: Seven Centuries of Violence in a Chinese County" Historical Review(Shanghai), Vol.1, February 2011, pp. 170-177.(in Chinese)