Position Title
Ph.D. Candidate
Research Focus
Sociology of Africa, empire and colonialism, post-independent nation-states, politics of race and counting, financialization, global historical sociology
Dissertation:
"Post-Independent Nation-States and Counting Race in Africa: Zambia and Zimbabwe 1961-1982."
Working Papers:
"Counting Colonial-Race: Censuses in Africa from 1881 to 2020."
"How Mobile Money Reshapes Inequality in Zambia." (With Stephanie Mudge)
"What Shapes Racial Attitudes in Post-Colonial Africa? Evidence from Zambia." (Best Qualifying Paper)
"Big Dispersal and Small Concentration: Chinese Spatial Assimilation in Lusaka, Zambia." (With YAN Hairong and Barry Sautman). Under review.
Research Affiliation
University of Zambia Department of Social Work and Sociology, 2023-present
University of Zimbabwe Department of History Heritage and Knowledge Systems, 2023-present
Publications
Yan, Hairong, Barry Sautman, and Yao Lu. 2020. “Chinese and ‘Self-Segregation’ in Africa.” Pp 40-66 in Chinese in Africa: 'Chineseness’ and the Complexities of Identities, edited by Obert Hodzi. Routledge. (Originally published as a special issue of Asian Ethnicity.)
Lu, Yao. 2020. Review of Queering Colonial Natal: Indigeneity and the Violence of Belonging in Southern Africa by T.J. Tallie. EuropeNow special feature on Race and Racism in Europe: The Urgency of Now.
Lu, Yao. 2019. Review of The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa by Ching Kwan Lee. Journal of Chinese Overseas 15(2):295-297.
Teaching
Associate Instructor
Introduction to Sociology
Teaching Assistant
Political Sociology
Classical Theory
Global Social Change
Social Movements
Social Policy
Sociology of Culture
Immigration and Opportunity
Data Visualization
Introduction to Social Research
Self and Society
China and Africa (HKUST)
International Law (HKUST)
China and the World (HKUST)
China-U.S. Relations (HKUST)
Understanding Society (HKUST)
Awards
2024-25 Graduate Program Fellowship, UC Davis
2023-24 Graduate Program Fellowship, UC Davis ($14,359)
2022 Dean’s Summer Graduate Fellowship, UC Davis ($4,050)
2022 Leon Mayhew Prize for the Best Qualifying Paper in Sociology, UC Davis ($1,000)