Chun-Yi Sum
Lecturer, Social Sciences
Dr. Sum’s research examines changing understandings about moral personhood and responsible citizenship in contemporary China. She works with both elite university students in the urban south and Mosuo (Na) youth in China’s southwestern borderlands to investigate how expressions of national belonging and civic participation evolve in the late-socialist economy.
Research Interests
Morality, Identity and Belonging, Emotions, Kinship, Citizenship, Civil Society, Socialism, China
Teaching Interests
Anthropology, Gender, Ethnicity, Social Inequality, Education, China, East Asia
Selected Publications
“Beyond romantic partnerships: Sese, gender egalitarianism, and kinship diversity in Mosuo society,” with Tami Blumenfield and Siobhán M. Mattison (book chapter, forthcoming)
“Hierarchy, Resentment, and Pride: Politics of Identity and Belonging among Mosuo, Yi, and Han in Southwest China,” with Tami Blumenfield, Mary K. Shenk, and Siobhan M. Mattison, Modern China 48.3 (2022): 568–592 (doi:10.1177/00977004211017814)
“Politics of Indifference: Mourning Wang Yue in Late Socialist China,” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 11.3 (2021): 986–999 (doi: 10.1086/717569)
“From Water to Tears: Extracurricular Activities and the Search for Substance in China’s Universities,” Children’s Geographies 16.1 (2018):15–26 (doi:10.1080/14733285.2017.1380166)
“A Great Leap of Faith: Limits to China’s University Cities,” Urban Studies 55.7 (2018):1460–76 (doi: 10.1177/0042098017716845)
“Suffering and Tears: Authenticity and Student Volunteerism in Post-Reform China,” Ethos 45.3 (2017): 409–29 (doi: 10.1111/etho.12172)
Her full CV is available here.
Other Professional Activities and Awards
Designing Antiracism Curricula Fellowship, Boston University, 2022–2023
Book Review Editor, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 2018–2023
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Human Family and Evolutionary Demography Lab, University of New Mexico, 2016–2018
Course Operational Grant for Community-Engaged Learning, Rochester Center for Community Leadership, 2019
Engaged Anthropology Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 2019