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Chen Shen

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Graduate Student Research Funding | 2023–2024 Academic Year

Redemptive Power: Intersectional Energy Transitions in Rural China

This research explores the intersection of renewable energy development and rural revitalization efforts in China's western, inland provinces. Through an initial ethnographic tracing of rural energy transition projects and their various material and social interactions-in-the-making, the study ultimately aims to shed light on the multifaceted granular dynamics at play as rural fringes re-emerge as experimental frontiers where our alternative electric futures get to be imagined, tested, and stretched.


Chen Shen, Department of Anthropology

headshot of Chen Shen

Chen Shen (she/her) is a first-year PhD student in anthropology at Stanford. Her research interests revolve around thinking with the electric flow and the volatile renewable energies (such as solar and wind) it increasingly draws on to see if it could open something about politics and life in China that couldn’t be pinpointed in any other way. Prior to Stanford, Chen obtained an MA in social sciences from the University of Chicago, an MSc in social anthropology (with distinction) from the London School of Economics, and a BA in international relations from Renmin University of China.

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