Aijie Shi

Biography

I am a PhD candidate working on the history of fisheries science in modern China. I am interested in tracing the delineation of time through celestial movements, environmental changes, and evolutionary processes, and their imprints on human society. I received my BA in History and MS in History of Astronomy in China. Turning my intellectual gaze from stars to the seas, my current project aims to fathom the aquatic productivity along the shorelines of modern China, with the case studies of shark liver oil production, brown algae transplantation, and reservoir-fishery construction in the global Cold War. I am always fascinated yet bewildered by the passionate fever fueled up by nationalism and socialism, and their clashes with science. I hope to be able to present it in the story that I am telling.

Education

M.S. in History of Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences
B.A. in History, Nanjing University

Field

• History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
• East Asian History

MA Title

• “Nationalizing Science in Republican China: The Birth of China’s Policy on Foreign Biological Expeditions”

Working Dissertation Title

• “Experimenting with Aquatic Productivity: the Life History of Fisheries Science in Cold War China”