Jessica DiCarlo

Dr. Jessica DiCarlo is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Utah. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia, focusing on Transportation and Development in China. Dr. DiCarlo contributes to debates on China’s role in shaping global capitalism, resource politics, and development. Her research encompasses a wide range of topics, including infrastructure, rural livelihoods, disasters, critical minerals, public health, economic zones, and US-China competition. Her research spans Asia and is informed by several years in the NGO and education sectors in China since 2008. It has been published in high-ranking journals and books, including her co-edited book, The Rise of the Infrastructure State: How US–China Rivalry Shapes Politics and Place Worldwide. Dr. DiCarlo holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado Boulder and master's in Development Studies from the University of California Berkeley. She was a Global China Fellow at Boston University (2019), a Research Fellow at the University of Bern’s Centre for Development and Environment (2018-20), a USAID Research and Innovations Fellow in India (2015), and a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow at the Dalian University of Technology, China (2009-10). She co-founded the Second Cold War Observatory and co-hosts The Roundtable podcast, while serving on the editorial board of The People's Map of Global China & Global China Pulse journal.