School of Social and Political Science

Can Tao

PhD Student

Can Tao's photo
can.tao@ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh
UK

Research interests

Childhood & Youth Identities & Inequalities Nationalism and political action

Everyday nationalism, Banal nationalism, National identity, Patriotic education, New Literacies Studies, China, Ethnography, Qualitative research methods

Background

My research is a comparative ethnography about everyday nationalism in Chinese rural and urban high schools.

Education

2020-Present PhD in Sociology, University of Edinburgh

2019-2020 MSc(R) in Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

2015-2019 MA(Hon) in Sociology and Psychology, University of Edinburgh

Publications

  • 2023. Review of Education, curriculum and nation-building: contributions of comparative education to the understanding of nations and nationalism, Edited by Daniel Tröhler. British Journal of Educational Studies, doi: 10.1080/00071005.2023.2251297
  • 2020. Review of Borderland Memories: Searching for Historical Identity in Post‐Mao China, by Martin T. Fromm. Nations and Nationalism, 26: pp.776-777. doi:10.1111/nana.12627

Conference presentations

  • “’Lide Shuren’ and National Literacies: A comparative ethnography of an urban and a rural school in China” in “Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference”, 4th September, 2023 
  • “Status and nationalism in Chinese rural and urban high schools” in “ASEN 2023 Conference: Nationalism and Multiculturalism”, 5th April 2023
  • “Researching the roots: Conducting ethnography at home” in “Doing Race and Gender as ESEA Scholars Conference”, 13th September 2022
  • “Learning the nation: A comparative study of the internalisation and reproduction of nationalism in urban and rural high schools in China” in “New Direction’s Conference 2021”, 5th May 2021
  • “Localising nationalism in the crisis: Online teaching during lockdown in a Chinese high school” in “ASEN 2021 Conference on Nationalism and Crisis”, 8th April 2021
  • “Domestic implications of China’s foreign aid during Covid-19” in “Virtual conference: China's foreign aid during the Covid-19 pandemic”, 1st June 2020

Teaching

Sociology 1A 

Sociology 1B

Honours and Awards

2023 HEA Associate Fellowship

2020-2023 PhD Research Support Fund

2020-2021 Moray Endowment Fund

2019-2020 MScR Dissertation Fieldwork Funding

Community Service

Organiser of "RU Reading", the ESEA book club

Supervisors

Prof Jonathan Hearn and Dr James Kennedy

Works within