Yuezhou Yang

Yuezhou Yang is a Departmental Lecturer at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID). Before joining Oxford, she was a Research Fellow at the LSE–Fudan Global Public Policy Hub at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She holds a PhD in International Development from the LSE and an MSc in Bioenergy from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Yuezhou’s research explores the political economy of land, infrastructure, and resource governance in the Global South, with a particular focus on Chinese capital in Africa. She is currently working on two projects: (1) the politics of state expropriation for public infrastructure, drawing on evidence from Kenya’s compulsory land acquisition and compensation for Chinese-sponsored projects; and (2) the politics of critical mineral governance, examining the implications of rising competition between Chinese and American firms in the context of renewable energy transitions.

Her doctoral research investigated property institutions in Africa and their economic effects on Chinese agricultural investment. It provides original documentation of Chinese investors in African agriculture and offers a fresh perspective on African state capacity in governing foreign investment in land.

At ODID, Yuezhou teaches on comparative politics and the political economy of development. She co-convenes the Core Course and lectures on Qualitative Methods as well as History and Politics.