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Ms Pei Jiang

PhD student

Pei is interested in biopolitics and the political ecology of seeds. Her current research examines the power relations in millet seeds’ commercialisation and seeds conservation in Aohan, China.

Biography

Career

  • October 2019-present: PhD Student in Geography, University of Cambridge.
  • September 2017-June 2019: Master in Sociology, Renmin University of China.
  • September 2013-June 2017: BA in Sociology, China Agricultural University.

Qualifications

  • 2019. Master in Law. Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China
  • 2017. BA in Law. Department of Sociology, China Agricultural University.

Awards and scholarships

  • The Henry Lester Trust. 2022. UK
  • Chinese Students Award. 2022. Great Britain-China Educational Trust. UK
  • Supplementary Funding. 2022. Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust. UK
  • ‘Still the Seed: An Investigation of the Millet Seed Industry in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia, China’. Best Paper Award. the GAUC Global Youth Conference: Climate X Nature. October 2021. Held by Tsinghua University and the University of Oxford.
  • Graduate Travel and Research Expense. 2021. Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. UK
  • Postgraduate Hardship Lundgren Fund. 2020. University of Cambridge. UK
  • Small Graduate Grants. 2020. Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. UK
  • University Fieldwork Fund. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. UK
  • National Scholarship for Graduate Students. 2018. Ministry of Education, China
  • National Scholarship for Undergraduate Students. 2016. Ministry of Education, China
  • National Scholarship for Undergraduate Students. 2015. Ministry of Education, China

Research

My research explores how biopower exerts its control over the millet seeds in Aohan, China. It has witnessed a booming millet seed industry since the seed market has turned from a planned economy to a market economy in the year 2000. Driven by the market, factors such as high-yielding and herbicide-resistant crops, the high price of grains rather than nutritional ingredients of millets become the main elements when people decide what to grow. Under the combined power of multiple actors, though the number of millet seeds varieties is increasing, these varieties mainly depend on limited backbone parent lines. Lacking commercial value, some local varieties are even disappearing. Meanwhile, genes and culture attached to these landraces have gone away. The narrowing germplasm resources bring about a severer challenge to food security and biodiversity in the context of climate change. Millet has been recognised for its climate resistance and nutritional benefits, and the potential to help us to move away from intensive farming of major cereals. Therefore, I also pay attention to seed conservation in this context.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Qin, H., Lu, C., Jiang, P., and Gao, X. (2019). A Comparative Review of American Environmental and Natural Resource Sociologies: Also, on the Sociology of Environmental and Resource Sociology (in Chinese). Sociological Review of China, (3), 84-96.
  • Jiang, P. (2017). Thirsty terrace: distribution and management of water resource in Wangjinzhuang Village (in Chinese). China Agricultural University Journal of Social Sciences Edition, (6), 95-102.

Book chapters

  • Oral histories of Wu, Y. and Wu, X. (in Chinese) in A remaining sign of village past: the oral history of Nihegou Village, Jiaxian County, Shaanxi Province. (2018). Sun, Q.(ed). Shanghai: Tongji University Press. pp.111-114, 233-237.
  • The chapters of Local Terrain, Human Settlements, Family of Wu and Story of Cave Dwelling in Nihegou Village (in Chinese) in A community connected by the serendipity of Chinese date: the cultural record of Nihegou Village, Jiaxian County, Shaanxi Province. (2018). Sun, Q.(ed). Shanghai: Tongji University Press. pp.30-31, 37-56, 77-87.
  • Photo caption (in Chinese) in A memory of left-behind countryside: the fleeting view of Nihegou Village, JiaxianCounty, Shaanxi Province. (2018). Sun, Q.(ed). Shanghai: Tongji University Press.
  • Oral histories of Prof. Chen, G., Prof. He, H. and Dr. Pan, L. (in Chinese) in Expectation and retrospection: the oral history of Department of Sociology, CAU. (2015). Zhu, Q.(ed). Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press. pp 1-24, 140-166, 392-410.

Conference presentations

  • ‘The Emotion Motive and the Persistence Mechanism to Pro-environmental Behaviour- An Observation of Interaction Rituals in Organic Farmers’ Market’. Oral presentation at the ‘Environmental Sociology’ Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association, July 2021, Chongqing, China.
  • ‘Political Economy Perspective to Seed Commercialisation in China’. Oral presentation at the Kaihua Forum for Rural Revitalisation. July 2021, Kaihua, China.
  • ‘Still the Seed: An Investigation of the Millet Seed Industry in Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia, China’. Oral presentation at the GAUC Global Youth Conference: Climate X Nature. October 2021. Online.