Xuyi Zhao is an urban ethnographer broadly interested in gender, (im)mobility, temporality, and the state. Her current research investigates the making of a brand-new urban area in Southwest China and various local efforts of community building, as the latter is often informed by top-down urban planning. Xuyi’s doctoral dissertation seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of state-individual relations amidst China’s unprecedented urbanization, as well as a careful examination of the myriad ways in which people inhabit, interpret, and envision the new city vis-à-vis official timelines of urban development. Prior to joining BU, Xuyi studied political science at Peking University for her undergraduate degree and obtained an MPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Cambridge.