suvi rautio
As an anthropologist working in China, my academic interests cover a range of fields that help me unpack the social orderings of marginalized populations. I research and write about nostalgia and memory retrieval, rural restoration and place-making, masculine selfhood, and Chinese state-society relations.
Guided by stories of my own family history, I am currently working on a four-year postdoctoral project (2021-2025) that applies intimate ethnography to look at the transmission of memory and loss among Beijing’s intellectual class during the Maoist era. I also supervise two MA anthropology students at the University of Helsinki.
Before starting my current post-doctoral project, I was teaching part-time. I have taught introductory anthropology courses for BA students for three years, and in spring 2019 I also designed and taught my own course series for MA students on the anthropology of China titled "China and Chinas". This was the first ever China focused course taught at the University of Helsinki anthropology discipline. In spring 2021, I co-taught a MA course on "Ethnographic Perspectives to Crisis, Power and the State" delivered by regional specialists working in Southern Europe, Greater China, and the Arab World.
In addition to my teaching, supervising and writing, I am also a New Books Network China Studies podcast host. My podcast episodes can be listened to here:
https://newbooksnetwork.com/hosts/profile/818d6351-1195-4bfa-8453-97a51f9116e3
My doctoral thesis (defended spring, 2019) draws on thirteen months of ethnographic research, including interviews, participant observation and media analysis, in a Dong ethnic minority village in Guizhou, southwest China. Comprised in a monograph, titled "The Jade Emperor's Last Taste of Water: An ethnography on the making of a village in China", my thesis uncovers the workings behind China’s top-down rural heritage reconstruction efforts. Drawing on broader discussions such as the dynamics of cultural heritage politics; ethnic representation; landscape and belonging; and how male status and masculinity are performed through rural ethnic subjectivities, my research provides a comprehensive analysis of Chinese village life. Incorporating detailed analysis with the workings of top-down policies on rural heritage reconstruction initiatives, "The Jade Emperor’s Last Taste of Water" reveals the incongruences and layers of social difference that characterise rural China today.
Guided by stories of my own family history, I am currently working on a four-year postdoctoral project (2021-2025) that applies intimate ethnography to look at the transmission of memory and loss among Beijing’s intellectual class during the Maoist era. I also supervise two MA anthropology students at the University of Helsinki.
Before starting my current post-doctoral project, I was teaching part-time. I have taught introductory anthropology courses for BA students for three years, and in spring 2019 I also designed and taught my own course series for MA students on the anthropology of China titled "China and Chinas". This was the first ever China focused course taught at the University of Helsinki anthropology discipline. In spring 2021, I co-taught a MA course on "Ethnographic Perspectives to Crisis, Power and the State" delivered by regional specialists working in Southern Europe, Greater China, and the Arab World.
In addition to my teaching, supervising and writing, I am also a New Books Network China Studies podcast host. My podcast episodes can be listened to here:
https://newbooksnetwork.com/hosts/profile/818d6351-1195-4bfa-8453-97a51f9116e3
My doctoral thesis (defended spring, 2019) draws on thirteen months of ethnographic research, including interviews, participant observation and media analysis, in a Dong ethnic minority village in Guizhou, southwest China. Comprised in a monograph, titled "The Jade Emperor's Last Taste of Water: An ethnography on the making of a village in China", my thesis uncovers the workings behind China’s top-down rural heritage reconstruction efforts. Drawing on broader discussions such as the dynamics of cultural heritage politics; ethnic representation; landscape and belonging; and how male status and masculinity are performed through rural ethnic subjectivities, my research provides a comprehensive analysis of Chinese village life. Incorporating detailed analysis with the workings of top-down policies on rural heritage reconstruction initiatives, "The Jade Emperor’s Last Taste of Water" reveals the incongruences and layers of social difference that characterise rural China today.
less
InterestsView All (6)
Uploads