Siqi Tu

Siqi Tu is a PhD candidate in sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). She earned a BA degree in sociology from Fudan University (China) and an MA degree in sociology from Columbia University. Her work focuses on the areas of urban sociology, immigration, education, elites, and contemporary Chinese societies. Siqi was born and raised in Shanghai, China, and moved to New York City in 2012. She developed her interest in immigration and urban neighborhoods as a keen observer of diverse communities in different metropolitan areas.

Her dissertation, Destination Diploma: How Chinese Upper-Middle Class Families “Outsource” Secondary Education to the United States, investigates why and how Chinese upper-middle-class families make decisions to send their children to the Unites States to attend private high schools, some as young as 14 years of age, and analyzes the actual lived experiences of the students of this “parachute-generation.” She has taught sociology at Brooklyn College since 2014 and is currently a Writing Fellow at Kingsborough Community College.