About me

Ruiyi Li 李睿一

Sociologist

Welcome to my personal site! Hi, I’m Ruiyi. I’m an incoming Global Fellow Postdoc at Duke Kunshan University, China. I earned my PhD in Sociology from the University of Southern California in 2026. I completed my Bachelor degree in Public Administration at Henan Normal University, China. After spending two years in Boston, I earned my M.A. degree in Global Studies from Brandeis University. Back then, I’ve worked on how Chinese nonprofits navigate resource scarcities and political uncertainties by choosing different organizational forms.

My dissertation project, Global Elites Made in China: How Elite Chinese Families Navigate Overseas Undergraduate Education, explores how upper-and-middle-class Chinese parents and students make decisions on studying abroad at the undergraduate level and prepare for it accordingly. Using in-depth interview and participant observation, this project aims to unpack the social process of how elites from emerging economies, such as China, manage to navigate various educational systems beyond the national border. Currently, two chapters from my dissertation project have been developed into standalone articles and are under review at different sociology journals. In the next two years, I plan to turn my dissertation into a book project.

In addition to my dissertation project, I am developing side projects on intergenerational wealth transfer in China. One of it focuses on the female inheritors of factories in coastal China. Specifically, I focus on how these female entrepreneurs navigate the traditional male dominated business world.

Please feel free to shoot me an email at rl402@duke.edu if you’re interested in learning or participating in my project!

I am also reachable on LinkedIn !