Hi! I'm Diego, aka Yunchang 葛云畅.

I am an undergraduate student at Duke University, double majoring in Political Science (political theory track), International Comparative Studies (China and East Asia regional focus), and minoring in Global Culture and Theory. (I know, a long list!)

I'm interested in issues of (im)migration, bordering practices, biopolitical formations, contemporary state/capital forms, Chinese politics & China-ASEAN relations, particularly with Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. I've had experience talking with/being in the nonprofit sector and civil society spheres in China, South Africa, Southeast Asia and the US. 

I've been to 20+ countries, and most of them require visas for Chinese passport holders like me; I also study in the US as a Chinese citizen - thinking about borders is not just a mental exercise for me, it's a quintessential part of how I experience this world.

Contact

You can email me at diego.ge@duke.edu or diego.ge@proton.me (please check out ProtonMail's free service which would allow you to automatically communicate with end-to-end encryption with other Proton users!)

I am also on Signal at @diego.81.

You can find me on LinkedIn here.

News

08/20/2024 My translation for the Frontline Nonfiction Fellowship of "Between Borders: The Spring Revolution and Burmese exiles on the Thai-Myanmar border" is complete!

07/27/2024 I completed an internship at Ndifuna Ukwazi, a housing justice advocacy organization in Cape Town, South Africa.

Other miscellaneous info

Why the name 'Diego'? Do you prefer it over 'Yunchang'?

I've been asked this question pretty much weekly since moving to the US for college. The short answer is Dora the Explorer - when I started kindergarten, our English teacher asked us all for an 'English name'. I didn't have one, so 'Diego' was the first one that I thought of, because I was binge-watching that cartoon at the time. Since then, it's been my name in every English classroom, and registered as my 'preferred name' for all of middle school and high school. It's been with me for more than 15 years at this point, so I feel both "Yunchang" and "Diego" refer to "me" - without particular preference either way.