The First Book Prize is judged on the quality and originality of the research, as well as on interdisciplinarity and engagement with complex societal problems. Winning books are selected through a three-stage review process that includes external peer review.

His book, The Crisis of Social Reproduction on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier: Education, Marriage, and Elder Care under Financialisation, is based on his DPhil research and will be published open access by OUP. In its endorsement, the Prize Committee wrote: “In this book, Zhifeng Chen offers an original and deeply researched account of how financialization is reshaping intimate life in rural China … Combining theoretical ambition with vivid ethnographic texture, the manuscript illuminates a rural crisis with resonance for debates on debt, housing, and demographic decline worldwide.”

Zhifeng said, “I am honoured that this book has been recognised by Oxford University Press. I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, Professor Jörg Friedrichs and Professor Masooda Bano, for their guidance and support throughout my DPhil.” 

Zhifeng completed his DPhil at ODID in November 2025.

Read more on the OUP website.