Yifan Yang has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS), University of Bremen, since October 2026. She works on the project “China’s Raw Materials Empire” within the DFG-funded research unit “Learning Empire: Autonomy, Dependence, and China’s Emerging Imperial Practices.”

Yifan completed her doctorate with summa cum laude (written dissertation: 0.3; oral defence: 0.7) at the University of Bayreuth, where she was a member of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) and a research associate in the ERC-funded project “Africa’s Infrastructure Globalities” (INFRAGLOB). She holds a dual BA in International Political Economy from Peking University (2016, China) and Waseda University (Japan). She received her Research MA in African Studies from Leiden University (2019, the Netherlands, Leiden University Excellence Scholarship).

She has extensive fieldwork experience researching Chinese corporate presence in Africa, including eleven months in Senegal, five months in Guinea, and five months in Kenya.