The China Studies Program congratulates one of our affiliated Ph.D. candidates, Matthew Van Duyn, for receiving the Fulbright US-Student Program Independent Study/Research Grant to support his work in the field of modern Chinese history.
Workers’ villages in Shanghai, the subject of Matthew’s dissertation research
The Fulbright US-Student Program Independent Study/Research Grant provides opportunities for doctoral candidates to engage in full-time research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. The program is designed to contribute to the development and improvement of the study of modern foreign languages and area studies in the United States.
Matthew in present-day Shanghai
Matthew’s dissertation focuses on the construction of public housing projects for workers in Shanghai in the 1950s as a lens to examine its transition to a socialist city. This connects his personal commitments to creating more equitable communities with his intellectual development as a historian of China. Matthew is interested in issues of the relationships between socialism, colonialism, and modernity in the context of rapid urban development.