Dr. Shaolu Yu is an urban geographer and urban planner. She holds a B.S. in Resources, Environment, Urban Planning and Management (Qufu, China), an M.S. in Urban Geography (Beijing, China), and a Ph.D. in Geography (University of Connecticut, U.S.A). Trained as an urban geographer in an interdisciplinary background and participating in projects in urban studies in China, the U.S., and Canada, she has developed a comparative and global perspective and a mixed method approach in her research on cities. Her papers have been published in the journals Annals of Association of American Geographers, The Professional Geographer, Urban Geography, Geographical Review, Journal of Transport Geography, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, Papers in Applied Geography.
Her current research interests include: Urban Space and Place-making, Migration and Mobility, Race and Ethnicity, and Asian Urbanism. She is interested in applying cartography and GIS in visualizing and analyzing spatial data. Her ongoing research projects include "Triangulated Between White and Black: Chinese in the Mid-South" and "Urban Queer Space in the South." She also continues her research interest in Asian Urbanization, particularly the social, cultural, and spatial changes in Asian cities under the impacts of globalization and neoliberalism.
Her course offerings include Urban Planning and Design, Transportation Geography and Planning, GIS applications in Urban Studies, Research Methods in Urban Studies, Globalization and Cities, Asian Urbanization through Cinema, Urban Queer Cinema-A Global Approach, AAPI Experiences through Literature and Film.
Selected Publications
2026: Shaolu Yu. . Geoforum, 172, 2026.
2025: Shaolu Yu., and Han Li. . Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 1鈥16.
2025: Shaolu Yu, Aijazi, O., Watson, J. K. . In T. Chen & C. Eubanks (Eds.), Global Asias: Tactics & theories (pp. 283鈥346). University of Hawai驶i Press.
2023: Shaolu Yu: .鈥 The Professional Geographer, 75:1, 175-186. Taylor & Francis.
2022: Shaolu Yu: . Annals of American Association of Geographers, 112:1, 97-122. Taylor & Francis.
2019: Shaolu Yu. . The Professional Geographer, 72:2, 272-282. Taylor & Francis.
2018: Shaolu Yu, Madalyn Bryant, Emily Messmer, Sophie Tsagronis & Sarah Link. . Urban Geography, 39:10, 1555-1575. Springer.
2018: Shaolu Yu. . Geographical Review, 108: 2, 225-249. Wiley.
2018: Shaolu Yu. . Papers in Applied Geography, 4:3, 256-273. Taylor and Francis.
2017: Shaolu Yu. . Urban Geography, 39:4, 563-586. Springer.
2017: Lucia Lo, Shaolu Yu, and Wei Li. Chinese Mobilities and Canada, University of British Columbia Press, 2017. 138-166.
2016: Shaolu Yu. Journal of Transport Geography, 54: 10-21.
2016: Shaolu Yu, and Wei Li. Navigating Geography and Self: Transnational Geographers Disrupting Boundaries in a Global Age, Lexington, 2016. 51-68.
Courses
- Asian Urbanization through Cinema (URBN 275)
- AAPI Urban Experiences through Cinema (URBN 276)