Specialization:
Areas of Concentration: architecture and urbanism in modern China
Faculty Advisor: Swati Chattopadhyay
Committee Members: Richard Wittman, Jia-Ching Chen (Department of Global Studies)
Dissertation Title: “Beautiful and Bountiful: Tropicality and the Making of Landscape in Modern China”
Bio:
Jiaqi Chen is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History of Art & Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in the history of twentieth-century architecture and urbanism in China. His dissertation examines the transformation of landscape in Xishuangbanna, a border region in southwestern China, bringing together architectural and planning history, environmental history, media studies, and colonial history. His research has been supported by the UCSB Chancellor’s Fellowship.
Before joining UCSB in 2023, Jiaqi worked in the Department of Traditional Architecture at the Chengdu Archaeology Institute. There, he contributed to research on vernacular building techniques in southwestern China, the development of a cultural heritage database for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mount Emei, and preservation plans for a number of historic sites. He received a B. Arch. (2017) and an M.Eng. in Architectural History and Theory (2020) from Southeast University.
Jiaqi’s research has been presented at the Annotation and Translation of Traditional Chinese Architecture Terminology (ATTCAT), Architectura Sinica, and the annual conferences of the Society of Architectural Historians. His recent work includes studies of Shaocheng Park in early Republican-era Chengdu and the 2020–21 northward migration of Asian elephants in Yunnan, presented at the 2025 and 2026 SAH Annual International Conferences.