Report on the HMUI Urban Research Grant

I applied for the Urban Research Grant for the purpose of bringing in guest speakers to my course. In the Fall semester of 2025, I taught a junior seminar, “SOC-STD 98MM: Asian Cities: Multiple Modernities and Global Connections,” housed in Social Studies. The class examined urban spaces situated within Asia, as well as diasporic urban spaces and communities physically outside of Asia, from ethnographic, sociological and historical perspectives. In addition, my class trained students in ethnographic methods and interviewing, which they put to use in their research for their senior theses. My course was open to students with an interest in urban-related topics in general, with no background knowledge on Asia required. 

I invited two guest speakers based in the Boston area for my seminar, for Monday November 17 th and Monday November 24 th . On Monday November 24 th , Dr. Grazia Ting Deng joined us in person for a discussion of her book, Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy (2024), which explores Chinese-run coffee bars in Italian towns and cities. Dr. Deng engaged with my students in a lively discussion, and also shared many exciting anecdotes from her fieldwork in Italy. She showed us pictures on her thumbdrive, which enlivened the class. 

Dr. Nicole Dejong Newendorp joined us in person on Monday November 24 th to discuss her book Uneasy Reunions: Immigration, Citizenship, and Family Life in Post-1997 Hong Kong (2008), a prize-winning ethnographic monograph on migration, domesticity and urban space in the context of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border. Dr. Newendorp shared a lot of insight as to how she gained access to her field site, including information that was not really included in the book, and my students learned a lot about conducting research from her visit. Through the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, I was able to thank each speaker with an honorarium of $250 for their time and energy in engaging with my students in critical discussion, and for sharing their experiences with ethnographic fieldwork. My students found it immensely helpful to learn from the authors first-hand.

Grant recipient: Xinyu Guan