Overview
Wu is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Science and Technology Studies through the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. He is also a former Visiting Assistant Professor at Bates College, and Science Communication and Marine Policy Specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Wu’s interdisciplinary research and teaching focuses on social oceanography, blue humanities, political economy, political ecology, and critical maritime, mobility, technology and labor, policy, globalization, and Anthropocene studies. He seeks to understand the complex relationship between humanity and the oceans, and examine the intersection of transregional economy, society, and ecology of the sea. Wu’s scholarship has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Center for Engaged Scholarship, and Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies.
Research Focus
Since 2006, through mixed methodologies led by ethnographic fieldwork at ports, onboard, overseas, and online, Wu has been studying the lifeworlds and lifeways of seafarers – maritime workers delivering 90% of international trade who largely come from the Global South regions of Asia. His work specifically delves into the techno-economic, infrastructural, legal, geographical, social, and environmental conditions and ramifications of container shipping in the postwar era, thereby unraveling the sociotechnical and systematic workings of commodity fetishism, racial capitalism, environmental extractivism, and neocolonial globalism of our times.
At Cornell, Wu is working on his publications including his book project about the sea and power – in its various senses from propulsion to organization, governance, and resilience. Wu will specifically focus on Southeast Asian seafarers who are the backbone of not only the international maritime workforce, but also the global economy and everyday lives in modern times. At the same time, Wu highlights that these overseas workers are bearing the brunt of and navigating climate change, geopolitical-economic currents, and industrial developments such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the latest decarbonization endeavors of shipping known as “the 4th Propulsion Revolution”.