Hou Li

Dr. Hou Li is the Associate Professor in Urban Planning, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University. During her stay as a Coordinate Research Scholar, she will collaborate with Professor Peter Rowe (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University) on a research project entitled “Urbanizing China: Ideologies, Plans and the Cities.” Hou Li’s scholarship addresses issues of history of urban planning in modern China with a particular attention to the relationship of industrialization and urbanization, the development of urban planning as a discipline, as well as urban-rural relationship. Her current research focuses on the Soviet influence over Chinese planning system, as an extended study of her doctoral dissertation, in which she explored the rise and fall of Daqing — an “urban-rural-integrated” model during China’s de-urbanization period, i.e. the 1960s and 1970s. She is also conducting a research on the history of China modern urban planning education, and empirical study regarding historic preservation and regeneration in Shanghai. She has been awarded three times for Distinction in Teaching during her educational career at Tongji University, and honors for outstanding research projects by Shanghai Municipal Government and Ministry of Education.

From 2012 to 2013, Hou Li served as the vice Director for Development and Reform Commission, Hongkou District Government, Shanghai Municipality. She has been the expert member of Shanghai Municipal Planning Commission since 2012, and a member of China Woman Planners’ Society.

Hou Li graduated from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University with a Master of Design Studies in 2005 and a Doctor of Design in 2009. Prior to that, she received a Master of Engineering in Urban Planning and B. UP from Tongji University.