Xiaoliang (Daniel) Li

Xiaoliang (Daniel) Li is sponsored by CSC to be a visiting scholar at UPenn throughout the year of 2024. Xiaoliang grew up in a remote village in Central China, earned his doctoral degree in sociology of education from the HKU, and currently serves as an associate professor at Northwest Normal University in China. He once worked in Tibet for six years, and used to be a Ford IFP fellow at Brandeis University. His current research focuses on rural students’ cultural struggles before and after entering universities. Over the past three years, Xiaoliang has collected over 300 educational autobiographies developed by undergraduate and graduate students at a non-elite higher education institution in China. During his visit at UPenn, Xiaoliang will work closely with Professor Emily Hannum and investigate rural students’ encounter with and adaptation to the mainstream culture at non-elite universities in China.