The Harvard Graduate School of Design is pleased to welcome Can Cui as the Pollman Fellow in Real Estate and Urban Development for the 2015–2016 academic year.
Cui recently completed her doctoral study in human geography and spatial planning at Utrecht University. Her primary research interest lies in the field of housing studies in relation to social, economic, and urban transformation. Her current research focuses on the housing behavior and position in the housing market of skilled migrants in post-reform Chinese cities, which she investigated in her doctoral dissertation, Skilled Migrants and the City: An Analysis of Housing Careers in Nanjing.
Cui has been internationally published in a number of peer-reviewed journals, and chapters from her dissertation have been presented at various international conferences. She brings to the GSD extensive research experience in China as well as a strong background in Geographic Information System (GIS) research.
Cui hopes to broaden the scope of her research in the areas of migration, socio-spatial inequalities, social sustainability, and the application of GIS in urban studies. Her specific planes of interest include comparative study of the effects of housing policy on housing tenure choice and the gap between the migration intention and the actual migration behavior of recent college and university graduates.
“I am so excited to start a new adventure here as a post-doctoral fellow at the GSD,” Cui says. “Since arriving here in September, I have found Cambridge such a livable city and Harvard full of opportunities. I especially enjoy experiencing the GSD’s open studios and Harvard’s various libraries, which are full of resources.”
One of the seven fellowships and prizes administered by the GSD’s department of urban planning and design, the Pollman Fellowship was established in 2002 through a gift from Harold A. Pollman. The fellowship is given yearly to an outstanding post-doctoral graduate in real estate, urban planning, and development, who spends one year in residence at the GSD as a visiting scholar. Last year’s Pollman Fellow was Shohei Nakamura, who completed his doctoral study in the urban and regional planning program at the University of Michigan.