About me

Who am I?

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Sub-Saharan Africa Research Program, Institute for International and Area Studies, Tsinghua University. My research focuses on global health and development cooperation. I have published peer-reviewed articles as first author in international journals including BMJ Global Health, Globalization and Health, and Health Policy and Planning, and I serve as an anonymous reviewer for several international journals.

I am currently conducting long-term fieldwork in Chad, while also working as a non-fiction writer. I hold a bachelor’s degree in international politics and a master’s degree in international public policy from Fudan University, Shanghai.

What impact do I seek to make?

Through research and writing, I seek to dismantle the knowledge and institutional assumptions that treat inequality and suffering as natural outcomes. By doing so, I aim to ensure that decision-making, practice, and public debate can no longer justify structural violence in the name of progress, efficiency, or resource scarcity, but are instead compelled to confront their internal conflicts, institutional constraints, and long-term consequences—so that the costs produced by these processes are no longer displaced onto individuals as personal failure or fate.

How did I come to this path?

I come from one of the poorest mountainous regions in China and have spent many years living and working in some of the poorest countries in the world. My life trajectory has not followed a linear upward path. Academically, I moved from international politics to public policy, from public health back to sociology. In practice, my work expanded from student initiatives and campus governance to local policy research and international cooperation projects. My research focus shifted from African industrial transformation to the political economy of global health financing, from international health cooperation within China to China–Africa health cooperation, and eventually to in-depth, country-level research on global health projects in Chad.

Each of these shifts was driven by the same judgment: when the tools I relied on proved insufficient to explain reality, I had to leave them behind. Yet every choice has also been guided by what Bertrand Russell described as “the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and an unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” I have never believed that I am changing the world, nor do I mythologize small improvements as victories. On the contrary, these experiences have made me more acutely aware of the limits of structure, the inertia of power, and the ways in which goodwill can be worn down by institutions.

Here, you will find a person whose life is marked not by legendary awards or overnight success, but by repeated trial and error, slow advancement under structural constraints, and a refusal to compromise with complexity. I hope this can offer encouragement to those who also come from ordinary backgrounds, who have struggled their way forward, and who still wish to understand the world rather than merely adapt to it.

At present, I live in a small house in Chad, doing fieldwork, writing, and thinking. I do not romanticize hardship, nor do I treat poverty as moral capital. I believe that only by laying bare one’s path, and by clearly articulating choices and their costs, can ideas exert real influence. In an era saturated with false elite narratives and instant emotional consumption, sustained and honest writing still holds power.

Contact

I welcome genuine dialogue. Whether through personal consultation, long-term conversation, or in-depth media interviews, I am willing to articulate these experiences and reflections clearly. I also welcome attention from universities and research institutions, as well as leaders in public, private, and organizational sectors who are interested in my intellectual trajectory. If there is a position that both matches my abilities and allows me to continue making meaningful contributions, I would take such an opportunity seriously.

You are welcome to contact me at: hadhuangaidan@gmail.com. I look forward to connecting.