Dr. Ellen Judd

Biography

Ellen Judd's research focuses on anthropology in contemporary China, specifically in areas such as rural ethnography, political economy, gender relations, and cultural production. She has an extensive educational background, having studied at Queen’s University, the University of British Columbia, Fudan University in Shanghai, Beijing University, and the University of Cambridge. In 2006, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and served as President of the Canadian Anthropology Society during 2012-2013. Judd was one of the earliest foreign students to study at Chinese universities after the Cultural Revolution, participating in a Canada-China Exchange Scholarship from 1974 to 1977. Her initial work targeted cultural production and its link to the Chinese performing arts, while her later ethnographic research in rural China examined the implications of post-Cultural Revolution economic reforms. She has conducted significant fieldwork with a longitudinal study of the Chinese women's movement, assessing indigenous responses to innovations during this transition. Since 2003, her research has shifted towards exploring the political economy and social implications of large-scale migration from rural to urban areas in China, particularly the effects on various vulnerable populations. More recently, her thematic research has delved into cross-cultural practices of inclusion and exclusion, as well as cooperation and mutuality.

Research Interests