We are delighted to share that Mengran Xu, who received her PhD degree in 2025, has been awarded the Rachel Carson Prize 2026 by the American Society of Environmental History.
This prestigious award recognizes the best dissertation in the field of environmental history, highlighting outstanding scholarly contributions to the discipline.
Rachel Carson Prize for the best dissertation
Meng Ran Xu (University of Toronto): “Producing Socialism in the Web of Life: An Agricultural and Environmental History of Mao’s China”
Xu delves into environmental perspectives to better understand the Chinese postwar revolution, noting that the creation of a socialist state in China was not merely a political or social project, but a fundamentally environmental one. The dissertation explores how Maoist China attempted to reorganize the web of life—interactions between human labor, agricultural production, and natural ecosystems—to achieve rapid industrialization and social equality in China during the Maoist era. Through an environmental history lens, Xu analyzes the modernization of agriculture, the reshaping of landscapes, and the changing role of peasants in their interaction with land, water, and seeds. Focusing on the rural landscape and communities, the dissertation offers us new understanding as to how the socialist project was not merely a top-down imposition but was coproduced through everyday labor, agricultural experimentation, and environmental adaptation among peasants.
Congratulations again to Mengran Xu on this well-deserved recognition!
