I’m excited to be returning to Moesgaard and to start my postdoc research here. My PhD, which I completed here as part of the ANTHUSIA program, explored how the cattle-rearing Borana people grapple with the political and economic shifts in Ethiopia since the 1970s, when the socialist Derg government took power. Building on that work, my postdoctoral project, “Making Cattle for Climate Futures”, looks at how shifts in cattle breeds and cattle production – often driven by socio-economic interventions – shape drought vulnerabilities. As part of this project, I’ll also be spending time at Agrarian Studies at Yale University in 2026.

I’m also affiliated with the ERC project AMBER at the University of Oslo, where I worked as a postdoctoral fellow in 2024-2025. There, my research has focused on post-mining livelihoods and landscape in Fushun, China, which is known for having the largest open-pit mine in Asia.

Research interests: environmental anthropology, multispecies studies, rural livelihoods, political ecology, extraction.

Contact:
Yayi Zheng
School of Culture and Society
Department of Anthropology
Moesgård Allé 20
Building 4236, room 216
8270 Højbjerg
yayiz@cas.au.dk