Timothy Oakes

Professor of Geography • Cultural Politics; Economic and Social Change; China • Ph.D. University of Washington, 1995

Human Geography

Research Interests

My work focuses on social and cultural transformation in contemporary China and, in particular, the uses and reinventions of local culture as a resource for economic development and governance objectives. I have explored this theme in the contexts of ethnic tourism and craft commodity production, cultural heritage development, and urban redevelopment and planning. My most recent research explores the development and use of leisure and consumption spaces in China’s urban areas, as well as in urbanizing areas of rural China. I am currently working on urban planning and infrastructural urbanism in China’s ‘New Area’ urban zones.

Current Research

I am the project director for "China Made: Asian Infrastructures and the 'China Model' of Development", funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. For more information on this project, see China Made Project. A brief article about the project is in A&S Magazine. Over the past decade, China has invested tremendously in infrastructure development, resulting in dramatic social and cultural changes in both rural and urban regions. It has also promoted an infrastructural development model beyond its borders as part of a newly aggressive foreign policy. China Made will explore both of these domestic and international dimension of China’s infrastructure development. The project is also meant to shift the academic focus from broader geopolitical and international relations perspectives to a finer grained analysis of the infrastructures themselves and the on-the-ground social and cultural dimensions of their construction. China Made is a partnership between the Center for Asian Studies and the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences.

More Info

I received my PhD in geography from the University of Washington in 1995, and BA in East Asian Studies from Colby College in 1987. I have held visiting faculty appointments at the University of Iowa, the University of Technology Sydney, Guizhou Minzu University, Wageningen University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Hong Kong. I am a research affiliate with the Cornell University Contemporary China Initiative, as well as with the Media Studies Department at the College of Media, Communication, and Information here at CU Boulder.

Recent Courses Taught

Fall 2023 GEOG 3822 Geography of China
Fall 2022 GEOG 3822 Geography of China
Fall 2022 GEOG 4002/5100 Global China
Fall 2021 GEOG 3822 Geography of China
Fall 2021 GEOG 6742 Seminar in Cultural Geography
Fall 2020 GEOG 2092 Advanced Introduction to Human Geography
Spring 2020 GEOG 2092 Advanced Introduction to Human Geography
Fall 2019 GEOG 6742 Seminar in Cultural Geography

Recent Publications

Oakes, T. 2021. The Belt & Road as method: geopolitics, technopolitics and power through an infrastructure lens. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 62(3): 281-285.
Oakes, T. and Y. Yang. 2021. Dance machine: performing the city in China’s public space. Civilizations 69(1): 49-66.
Oakes, T. and Z. Zuo. 2022. Remoteness and connectivity: the variegated geographies of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Highland Asia, pp. 418-429 (London & New York: Routledge).
Oakes, T. 2022. Ordering the frontiers: purification projects as a territorializing strategy in southwestern China. Eurasian Geography and Economics. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2022.2095520.
Oakes, T. 2022. From creation city to infrastructural urbanism: the Chinese National New Area as an infrastructure space. In Hirsh, M. and Mostowlansky, T. (eds.), Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia, pp. 157-177 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press).
Chen, X. and T. Oakes. 2023. Time-space companions: digital surveillance, social management, and abuse of power during the Covid-19 pandemic in China. Critical Asian Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2023.2191248.
Oakes, T. 2023. The National New Area as an infrastructure space: urbanization and the new regime of circulation in China. The China Quarterly 255, 575-590.
Rippa, A. and T. Oakes. 2023. Infrastructural thinking in China: a research agenda. The China Quarterly 255, 547-559.

Updated January, 2024

Timothy Oakes News

Tim Oakes Wins Outstanding Mentor Award

China Made: Asian Infastructures and the ‘China Model’ of Development

Asia image from a rug or textile artwork

CAS Wins Major Grant from Henry Luce Foundation

Profs find few benefits, some harm in “voluntourism”

Tim Oakes awarded Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship

Timothy Oakes' Grad Students

Tim Oakes' Photos

Seated caucasian man examining book with Asian men, woman, and children seated around him

Tim Oakes (Geography faculty) with long time collaborator Professor Wu Xiaoping examining family genealogies, rural Guizhou, China. May 2004. With heritage tourism on the rise, family histories have become increasingly important as villagers seek to assert their 'heritage credentials.' Oakes and Wu's book 'Reinventing Tunpu' (2007) explores the ways these villagers reinvent their history and culture to accommodate tourism development. Photo: Tim Oakes (Geography, CU-Boulder)

Seated caucasian man in Chinese village next to TV interviewer and camera crew with villagers observing

Tim Oakes (Geography faculty) being interviewed by Guizhou Television Station in Yunshantun village, China. July 2005. Oakes studies the ways villages are branded and marketed for heritage tourism, and the ways villagers themselves participate in and understand the development of their culture. Photo: Tim Oakes (Geography, CU-Boulder)

Caucasian man with chopsticks eating dinner with 2 Chinese women

Wu Xiaoping, Yang Zhu, and Tim Oakes (Geography faculty) 'suffering' through another difficult period of fieldwork, rural Guizhou, China. May 2004. Rural cuisine has become something of a tourist commodity in Guizhou, with urban tourists seeking 'authentic' and hearty country food in villages. Even when 'authentic cuisine' is reinvented for the tourist's palate, eating remains an enjoyable part of research! Oakes conducts research on the ways that tourism offers new challenges and opportunities for such villages in rural China. Photo: Tim Oakes (Geography, CU-Boulder)

Singaporean tourists taking photos of old Chinese man and girl sitting outside on the street

Singapore tourists in the village of Yunshantun, Guizhou, China. July 2007. Although tourism is promoted as a way to preserve the living culture and heritage of rural China, most villages, like Yunshantun, find themselves drained of nearly all working adults, who leave behind the children and grandparents and seek employment in the cities. Tim Oakes (Geography faculty) conducts research on the ways that tourism offers new challenges and opportunities for such villages in rural China. Photo: Tim Oakes (Geography, CU-Boulder)

A Chinese tourist dons a Miao silver headdress at the Sister's Rice Festival, Shidong, Guizhou, China. April 1994. Ethnic tourism has become increasingly popular among urban Han Chinese tourists, who particularly enjoy attending festivals, imbibing in local rice wine, and 'playing the native' for a day. The rise of domestic tourism in Guizhou is a central focus of the research of Tim Oakes (Geography faculty) in China. Photo: Tim Oakes (Geography, CU-Boulder)

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