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Research Interests

My work focuses on social and cultural transformation in contemporary China and, in particular, the uses and reinventions of local culture as a resource for babyÖ±²¥app development and governance objectives. I have explored this theme in the contexts of ethnic tourism and craft commodity production, cultural heritage development, and urban redevelopment and planning. My most recent research explores the development and use of leisure and consumption spaces in China’s urban areas, as well as in urbanizing areas of rural China. I am currently working on urban planning and infrastructural urbanism in China’s ‘New Area’ urban zones.

Current Research

I am the project director for "China Made: Asian Infrastructures and the 'China Model' of Development", funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. For more information on this project, seeÌý. A brief article about the project is in A&S Magazine.ÌýOver the past decade, China has invested tremendously in infrastructure development, resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban regions. It has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy. China Made will explore both of these domestic and international dimension of China’s infrastructure development. The project is also meant to shift the academic focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social and cultural dimensions of their construction. China Made is a partnership between the Center for Asian Studies and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences.

More Info

I received my PhD in geography from the University of Washington in 1995, and BA in East Asian Studies from Colby College in 1987. I have held visiting babyÖ±²¥app appointments at the University of Iowa, the University of Technology Sydney, Guizhou Minzu University, Wageningen University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Hong Kong. I am a research affiliate with the Cornell University Contemporary China Initiative, as well as with the Media Studies Department at the College of Media, Communication, and Information here at CU Boulder.

Recent Courses Taught

• Fall 2024Ìý GEOGÌý3822ÌýÌýGeography of China
• Fall 2024Ìý GEOG 6742Ìý Seminar in Cultural Geography
• Fall 2023Ìý GEOGÌý3822ÌýÌýGeography of China
• Fall 2022Ìý GEOGÌý3822ÌýÌýGeography of China
• Fall 2022Ìý GEOG 4002/5100Ìý Global China
• Fall 2021Ìý GEOGÌý3822ÌýÌýGeography of China
• Fall 2021Ìý GEOGÌý6742ÌýÌýSeminar in Cultural Geography
• Fall 2020ÌýÌý³Ò·¡°¿³ÒÌý2092ÌýÌýAdvanced Introduction to Human Geography
• Spring 2020ÌýÌý³Ò·¡°¿³ÒÌý2092ÌýÌýAdvanced Introduction to Human Geography
• Fall 2019ÌýÌý³Ò·¡°¿³ÒÌý6742ÌýÌýSeminar in Cultural Geography

Recent Publications

• Oakes, T. 2021. The Belt & Road as method: geopolitics, technopolitics and power through an infrastructure lens. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 62(3): 281-285.
• Oakes, T. and Y. Yang. 2021. Dance machine: performing the city in China’s public space. Civilizations 69(1): 49-66.
• Oakes, T. and Z. Zuo. 2022. Remoteness and connectivity: the variegated geographies of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Highland Asia, pp. 418-429 (London & New York: Routledge).
• Oakes, T. 2022. Ordering the frontiers: purification projects as a territorializing strategy in southwestern China. Eurasian Geography and Economics. .
• Oakes, T. 2022. From creation city to infrastructural urbanism: the Chinese National New Area as an infrastructure space. In Hirsh, M. and Mostowlansky, T. (eds.), Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia, pp. 157-177 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press).
• Chen, X. and T. Oakes. 2023. Time-space companions: digital surveillance, social management, and abuse of power during the Covid-19 pandemic in China. Critical Asian Studies. .
• Oakes, T. 2023. The National New Area as an infrastructure space: urbanization and the new regime of circulation in China. The China Quarterly 255, 575-590.
• Rippa, A. and T. Oakes. 2023. Infrastructural thinking in China: a research agenda. The China Quarterly 255, 547-559.

Updated January, 2024