Niall Chithelen
Dissertation Fellow
UC San Diego
Niall Chithelen is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation centers on the use of concrete in Mao-era China. By studying concrete, Niall seeks to connect the histories of architecture, economic planning, technological experimentation, and ecology in 20th-century China. Niall is also interested in the history of violence, the global Cold War, and critical geography. Prior to his Ph.D., Niall received a B.A. from Cornell University and taught at China Foreign Affairs University as a Princeton in Asia fellow. He is also an editor and occasional writer for Taxis magazine.
Proposal Title: Concrete and the Construction of China: The Environmental History of “Building Socialism,” 1949–1976
