https://events.uvic.ca/capi/event/96082-chinese-canadians-and-foreign-interference
https://events.uvic.ca/capi/event/96083-field-schools-to-china
https://events.uvic.ca/capi/event/96084-sustainable-trade-with-china
Areas of Interest
Sociology of childhood and youth, governance and power, citizenship, racism, colonialism, Asian diasporas especially the Chinese diaspora, and Buddhist social thought.
About
Xiaobei Chen was born in Guiyang in the southwestern part of China. She received her B.A. from Guizhou University, M.Phil. from the University of Hong Kong, and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She was awarded a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta (2001-2003). She has carried out policy, archival, and ethnographic research in China and Canada. Her current research is focused on anti-Asian racism and Sinophobia.
Since joining Carleton in 2005, she has taught critical studies of race and ethnicity, sociology of colonialism and postcolonialism, sociology of childhood, Asian diasporas, contemporary sociological theory, and transnational feminism.
She has consulted to community groups and governments on research projects about multiculturalism, immigration and settlement, racism, and equity.
Professional Honours
2023 - Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Outstanding Contribution Award
2019 - Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law and Governance Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China
2018-2019 - Visiting Professor, Department of Early Childhood Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
2016 - Key Project Visiting Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Central China Normal University, Hubei Province, China
Selected Publications
Books:
Chen, Xiaobei and Jiyoung Lee-An. 2025. Eds. Special Issue “Analyzing and Resisting Anti-Asian Racism”, Migration, Mobility, and Displacement, 7(1), 145pp.
Berman, Rachel, Patrizia Albanese, and Xiaobei Chen. Eds. Sociological Research and Urban Children and Youth, in the Sociological Studies of Childhood and Youth series, Emerald Publishing, 2023, 183pp.
Jean-Pierre, Johanne, Vanessa Watts, Carl James, Patrizia Albanese, Xiaobei Chen, and Michael Graydon. Eds. Reading Sociology (4th ed.), Oxford University Press, 2023, 410pp.
Chen, Xiaobei, Rebecca Raby, and Patrizia Albanese. Eds. The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada. Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2017, 425pp.
Liu, Meng, Xiaobei Chen, and Sheila Neysmith. Eds. Social Work for Women in the Chinese Context. Beijing: the Chinese Labour and Social Security Press, 2007, 209pp. (in Chinese with English Abstracts)
Chen Xiaobei. Tending the Gardens of Citizenship: Child Saving in Toronto, 1880s-1920s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, 197pp.
Refereed Book Chapters:
Chen, Xiaobei. “Anti-Asian Racism”. In Reading Sociology (4th ed.), edited by Jean-Pierre, Johanne, Vanessa Watts, Carl James, Patrizia Albanese, Xiaobei Chen, and Michael Graydon. Oxford University Press, 2022, pp.169-174.
Chen, Xiaobei. 2019. “Governing Cultures, Making Multicultural Subjects.” In Re-Making Normal: Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times, edited by Deborah Brock, pp.84-108. University of British Columbia Press.
Chen, Xiaobei. “Racism, Culture, and Power in Children’s Books.” In The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada, edited by Chen, Xiaobei, Rebecca Raby, and Patrizia Albanese, pp.182-197. Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2017.
Chen, Xiaobei, Rebecca Raby, and Patrizia Albanese. “Introduction.” In The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada, edited by Chen, Xiaobei, Rebecca Raby, and Patrizia Albanese, pp.1-19. Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2017.
Chen, Xiaobei. “Children’s Literature and Racism in Canada.” In Reading Sociology, edited by P. Albanese and L. Tepperman, pp.50-54. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Refereed Journal Articles:
Chen, Xiaobei. 2025. “Crises, Scapegoating, and Anti-Chinese Racism”, in Chen, Xiaobei and Jiyoung Lee-An. Eds. Special Issue “Analyzing and Resisting Anti-Asian Racism”, Migration, Mobility, and Displacement, 2025, 7(1), pp.7-28.
Huang, Ines, Xiaobei Chen, and Jiyoung Lee-An. 2025. “Reflections on Organizing Ottawa’s Vigil for Atlanta Shooting Victims in 2021”, in Chen, Xiaobei and Jiyoung Lee-An. Eds. Special Issue “Analyzing and Resisting Anti-Asian Racism”, Migration, Mobility, and Displacement, 2025, 7(1), pp.118-126.
Siltanen, Janet, Xiaobei Chen, Aaron Doyle, and Alexis Shotwell. 2019. “Teaching, Supervising, and Supporting PhD Students: Identifying Issues, Addressing Challenges, Sharing Strategies.” Canadian Review of Sociology. DOI: 10.1111/cars.12239.
Yang, Shengyong and Xiaobei Chen. 2017. “Guowai Ertong Baohu de Pipanxing Yanjiu (Western Scholars’ Critical Perspectives on Child Protection and Implications to Research in China).” Guowai Shehuixue (Sociology in the West), 2, 101-106. (in Chinese)
Chen, Xiaobei and Lan Chen. 2016. “Memories of the Revolution Childhood and the Modernization Childhood in China: 1950s–1980s.” European Education, 48:3, 187-202, DOI: 10.1080/10564934.2016.1217740.
Chen, Xiaobei. 2016. “Nation, Culture, and Identity in Transnational Child Welfare Practices: Reflection on History to Understand the Present.” Transnational Social Review, 6:3, 280-296. DOI: 10.1080/21931674.2016.1222762.
Chen, Xiaobei and Sherry Thorpe. 2015. “Temporary Families? Neoliberal Regime of Immigration Governance and Family Reunification Policy Changes in Canada.” Migration, Mobility, and Displacement 1:1, 81-98.
Chen, Xiaobei. 2015. “Not Ethnic Enough: The Cultural Identity Imperative in International Adoptions from China to Canada.” Children and Society, 29:6, 626-636.
Public Engagement Writings:
Chen, Xiaobei. “Multiculturalism and Canada-China Relations.” Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, June 30, 2022.
Chen, Xiaobei. "Understanding the Roots of Systemic Anti-Asian Racism." One Pacific News, November 7, 2021.
Paltiel, Jeremy, Daniel A. Bell, Xiaobei Chen, and Wenran Jiang. “Stop Poisonous Prejudice against Canadians of Chinese Descent”. Hill Times, July 29, 2021.
Lee-An, Jiyoung and Xiaobei Chen. “The Model Minority Myth Hides the Racist and Sexist Violence Experienced by Asian Women”. The Conversation, March 28, 2021.
Invited Talks:
Chen, Xiaobei, Panelist. Panel on “Between Science and Bias: Challenging Racial Profiling in the Academy.” Chinese Canadian Faculty Project, Simon Fraser University, October 18, 2024.
Chen, Xiaobei. “How to Protect Our Academic Freedom and Citizenship Rights,” the 11th Multidisciplinary Symposium of Canadian Academy of Chinese Professors, University of Victoria, June 21-23, 2023.
Chen, Xiaobei. Panelist. Information Session “Academic Freedom, Research Security Risks, and CSIS on Campus,” Western University Faculty Association, June 9, 2023.
Chen, Xiaobei. Panelist, “Becoming Chinese Canadians,” Asian Heritage Month Symposium “East Asian Identities in the Era of Global Mobility”, University of Toronto/OISE, May 15, 2021.
Media Interviews:
Chen, Xiaobei. Panelist. Finding common ground: addressing hate and racism in Canada -- Spotlight on: social cohesion in polarized times. November 19, 2024. Montreal/Virtual Event. The Globe and Mail National Town Hall Series.
Interview with Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Bulletin, “Chinese research collaborations under the microscope”, September 2023.
Interview with Science|Business, “The security crackdown by Canadian government is hampering research collaboration with China”, June 29, 2023.
Interview with The Breach, “Canada’s China panic is an omen of dangerous Cold War politics”, April 6, 2023.
Services to the Profession:
2021-2022 Past-President, Canadian Sociological Association/ Société canadienne de sociologie
2020-2021 member, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Task Force on Contingency Planning for Congress 2021
2020-2021 Representative of Canada to the International Sociological Association (ISA) Council for National Associations
2020 - 2021 President, Canadian Sociological Association/ Société canadienne de sociologie
2019 - 2020 President-Elect, Canadian Sociological Association/ Société canadienne de sociologie
Services to the Community:
Member, Advisory Group, Canada-China Focus, a joint project of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and the Centre for Global Studies (University of Victoria).
Led the organizing of Ottawa Vigil for Atlanta Shooting Victims: Stop Anti-Asian Racism and Misogyny, Minto Park, Ottawa, March 28, 2021.
Lead participant in a public education series on taking actions against prejudices and discrimination for Chin Radio Ottawa Mandarin Program, produced by Susan Zhou, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre, 2020.