Dr. Dror Kochan

Contemporary China, Migration, Urban Planning, Public Space

I completed my PhD at the Hebrew University in 2014. I have spent several years in Asia, studying Chinese in Beijing (Beijing University) and Taipei (National Taiwan Normal University) and conducting research in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, also taking a short-term visitor scholar position at the Chinese University of Hong-Kong. I was a research associate at the PEC -Planning for the Environment with Communities- Lab within the department of Geography and Human Environment), and held a post-doc position at the Truman institute for the advancement of peace at the Hebrew University.

My work focuses on the challenges posed by internal migration within China’s unprecedented urbanization process, and how these challenges might be addressed through innovative and socially engaged urban planning, contributing to the development of “human centered urbanization".

Teaching Subjects include: History, Politics, and Society in Contemporary China and Taiwan, Central-Local Relations, Chinese Foreign Relations, Migration, Ecology and Sustainability, Urban Development, Urban Planning, Cinema and Contemporary Culture in China. 

Introduction to Contemporary China:

• Tel Hai Academic Collage, East-Asian Studies Department (2016-)
   

Traditional China – History and Culture:

• Tel Hai Academic Collage, East-Asian Studies Department (2020-)
   

Perpetuum mobile: local politics and social challenges in China:

• Tel-Aviv University, East-Asian Studies Department (2015)
   

Geographies of Change: China’s sustainability challenges:

• The Hebrew University, Geography Department (2016-2020)
• Tel Hai Academic Collage (2016-2019)
   

From nationalism to neo-liberalism: similarities and differences in Taiwan’s and China’s development trajectories:

• The Hebrew University, The Department of Asian Studies (2015-)
• Tel-Aviv University, East-Asian Studies Department (2016-2018)
   

Watching China: Chinese Cinema and Contemporary China:

• Tel Hai Academic Collage, East-Asian Studies Department (2018-)
• The Hebrew University, The Department of Asian Studies (2019-)
   

Chinese Diplomacy and Foreign Relations in the 21th Century:

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, East-Asian Studies Department (2018)
   

Political and Social Issues in Contemporary China:

• Tel Hai Academic Collage, East-Asian Studies Department (2015)
   

Politics, Society, and Urban Space in Contemporary China:

• Ben-Gurion University, The Department of Politics and Government (2012-2014)
• Tel-Aviv University, East-Asian Studies Department (2012-2014)
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Department of Geography (2014) – taught in English
   

Urban Society in Contemporary China:

• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, East-Asian Studies Department (2006-2007)
• Tel-Aviv university, East-Asian Studies Department (2007)

• The Polonsky Ph.D. Scholarship in Asian Studies (part of the University President Scholarship Program), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem [2008-2012]
   
• Settling Into Motion – The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarship in Migration Studies, ZEIT Stiftung – Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius [2008-2011] http://www.settling-into-motion.org/about/program/

• Kochan D. (2019) "Spatiality, Belonging and Citizenship in the Age of Migration in Contemporary China", Asia Pacific Viewpoint 61(1): 147-161. [2019 - 18/77 (Area Studies) 63/84 (Geography)]

• Kochan D. (2018) "The Prospects and Challenges of Socially Engaged Urban Planning and Architecture in Contemporary China", Journal of Planning Education and Research. [2019 impact factor 3.1, 8/42 (Urban Studies); 9/39 (Planning & Development)]

• Kochan D. (2016) “Home is where I lay down my hat? The Complexities and Functions of Home for Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Contemporary China”, Geoforum 71(1):21-32. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.02.021 [2019 impact factor: 3.098, 19/84 (Geography)]

• Kochan, D. (2016) “(Re)placing Migrants’ Mobility: A Multi-method Approach to Integrating Space and Mobility in the Study of Migration”, Migration Studies. 4 (2): 215-237.doi: 10.1093/migration/mnw003 [2019 Impact Factor: 1.511, 16/28 (Demography)]

• Kochan, D. (2015) “Placing the Urban Village: A Spatial Perspective on the Development Process of Urban Villages in Contemporary China”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(5): 927–947. doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12287 [2019 Impact Factor: 2.97510/42 (Urban Studies); 11/39 (Planning & Development); 20/84 (Geography)]

• Kochan D. (2009). “Visual Representation of Internal Migration and Social Change in China”, China Information, 23(2), 2009, pp. 285-316. doi: 10.1177/0920203X09105128 [2019 Impact Factor 1.417, Area Studies 14/77] --- Reprinted in Michael Keane and Wanning Sun (eds.) Chinese Media, London: Routledge 2013.