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Ruoran Cheng

Email: R.Cheng4@lse.ac.uk
CV

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, supervised by Joan Rosés.

My research lies at the intersection of historical GIS, digital humanity, economic history, economic geography, and development.

My work focuses on transportation networks in both historical and contemporary China and their relationship with urban development over the past 10,000 years, from the origins of civilization to the present day. I am particularly passionate about collecting and utilizing historical GIS data on transportation routes, cities, and archaeological sites, aiming to uncover long-term patterns that connect transport routes, cities, and the evolution of civilization.

Another field I am working on is the social elite network in 11th-century China and how their activities would impact the spatial variation of state capacity (ability for taxation) within the empire.

Recently, I have also been working on using AI to analyze the archaeologically excavated artifacts and their decorative patterns, with the aim of reconstructing the spatial and temporal aspects of human civilization's evolution.


Working papers:


Work in progress:


Teaching:

LSE

Teaching Assistance:


Other:

Transportation Network in Late Imperial China: I have georeferenced all courier stations in Ming China, which is the official transportation network covering 14th to 19th century. A more advanced version could be found at Pastway by Thorben Pelzer.