Bio

Miranda Li is a PhD student at IRES under the co-supervision of Dr. Kai Chan in the CHANS Lab and Dr. Juliet Lu in the Global Political Ecology Group. Her research focuses on the social and ecological impacts of China’s current period of protected areas reform, including the creation of national parks, the downsizing and degazettement of existing protected areas, and their broader implications for environmental governance approaches.

Miranda is from New York, United States, where she completed her Bachelor’s degree at Columbia University in 2017, majoring in Computer Science and Economics–Philosophy. She received her Master’s degree in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University’s Schwarzman Scholars program in 2022. Before joining IRES in 2025, Miranda worked with two local environmental organizations in Qinghai and Sichuan, China, supporting science-based and community-based conservation programs in Sanjiangyuan and Giant Panda National Parks. She also worked with the Earth for Life team at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), analyzing changes under the global Protected Areas Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement (PADDD) initiative.