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Research Interests

My work has long focused on social and cultural transformation in contemporary China and, in particular, the uses and reinventions of local culture as a resource for economic 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. More recently, my research has explored China's infrastructure-driven model of development and, in particular, infrastructural urbanism in China’s ‘New Area’ urban zones. This work has also taken me beyond China's borders to explore the cultural, economic, and political geographies of infrastructure-driven development in Southeast Asia.

Current Research

I am currently working on two projects. One is a co-edited volume comparing and contrasting Japanese and Chinese experiences of nuclear power development from a sociotechnical perspective, titled Living in Nuclear Asia: Sociotechnical Perspectives on Nuclear Power Development, Risk, and VulnerabilityÌý(forthcoming from University of Toronto Press). The second is a research project on digital infrastructure landscapes of Southeast Asia, and China's role in the production of such landscapes, titled The New Hinterlands: Digital Connection, Suspension, and Precarity in Southeast Asia

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 faculty appointments at University of Iowa, University of Technology Sydney, Guizhou Minzu University, Wageningen University, National University of Singapore, University of Hong Kong, and University of Oslo. From 2012 to 2023 I served as Faculty Director of the Center for Asian Studies, and from 2018 to 2023 I was Program Director for China Made, an international research collective on China's infrastructure-driven model of development.

Recent Courses Taught

• Spring 2025Ìý GEOGÌý4002Ìý Topics in Human and Environment/Society Geography: Global China
• Fall 2024Ìý GEOGÌý3822Ìý Geography of China
• Fall 2024Ìý GEOG 6742Ìý Seminar in Cultural Geography
• Fall 2023Ìý GEOGÌý3822Ìý Geography of China
• Fall 2022Ìý GEOGÌý3822Ìý Geography of China
• Fall 2022Ìý GEOG 4002/5100Ìý Global China
• Fall 2021Ìý GEOGÌý3822Ìý Geography of China
• Fall 2021Ìý GEOGÌý6742Ìý Seminar in Cultural Geography
• Fall 2020ÌýÌýGEOGÌý2092Ìý Advanced Introduction to Human Geography
• Spring 2020ÌýÌýGEOGÌý2092Ìý Advanced Introduction to Human Geography

Recent Publications

• Cartier, C. and T. Oakes. 2026. Infrastructure and territory. In Hoffman, L., J. Hubbert, and Z. Liu (eds.),ÌýThe Sage Handbook on Urbanization in ChinaÌý(London: Sage).
• Oakes, T. 2025. Demolition. In Elinoff, E. and K. Rubaii (eds.),ÌýThe Social Properties of Concrete. Goleta, CA: Punctum.
• Cartier, C. and T. Oakes. 2024. Vast land of borders: state, empire, and territory in China.ÌýEurasian Geography and EconomicsÌý65(6-7): 709-729.
• Oakes, T. 2024. Global China and infrastructure power: the technopolitics of the ‘China Model’ of development.ÌýGeorgetown Journal of Asian AffairsÌý10: 84-93.
• Byler, D. and T. Oakes. 2024. The social life of Chinese infrastructures in Southeast Asia.ÌýSingapore Journal of Tropical GeographyÌý45(2): 169-180.
• Oakes, T. 2024.ÌýOrdering the frontiers: purification projects as a territorializing strategy in southwestern China.ÌýEurasian Geography and Economics. 65(6–7): 783–98.
• Chen, X. andÌýT. Oakes. 2023. Time-space companions: digital surveillance, social management, and abuse of power during the Covid-19 pandemic in China. Critical Asian StudiesÌý55(2): 282-305.
• 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. andÌýT. Oakes.Ìý2023. Infrastructural thinking in China: a research agenda. The China Quarterly 255, 547-559.

Updated April, 2025