Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Doctor of Design

Dissertation: “The Problems and Politics of Authenticity in Chinese Heritage Practices”; Advisors: K. Michael Hays, Peter G. Rowe, Michael Herzfeld

2022

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation)

Thesis: “Critical Chinese Copying: Authenticity and Originality in the Built Environment of Contemporary China”

2017

Peking University

Bachelor of Engineering in Urban Planning

Bachelor of Art in Arts (Double Major)

2015

Tongji University, College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Research Professor at the Department of Urban Planning

“Shanghai Leading Talents Program (Abroad)”

2024-

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Lecturer at the Department of Urban Planning and Design

DES 4358 “The History of Heritage and The Heritage of History”

Critic in the Urban Design core studio

2022-2023

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Research Associate: “Urban Design Case Study Archive”

2022-2023

Harvard Center For Green Buildings and Cities

Research Associate: “On the Environmental Anthropogenic Metabolism of Urban Settlement”

2022-2023

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Research Tutor

AY2018-2022 Master in Design Studies Program

2018-2023

Teaching Fellow

Doctoral Program Proseminar (by Peter Rowe and Ali Malkawi)

Modern Architecture and Urbanism in China (by Peter Rowe)

Modern Architecture and Urbanism in China (by Peter Rowe)

Culture, Conservation and Design (by Susan Snyder and George Thomas)

History of Landscape Architecture I (by Sonja Duempelmann)

Modern Architecture and Urbanism in China (by Peter Rowe)

History and Theory of Urban Interventions (by Neil Brenner)

Culture, Conservation and Design (by Susan Snyder and George Thomas)

Modern Architecture and Urbanism in China (by Peter Rowe)

Spring 2022

Spring 2021

Spring 2020

Fall 2019

Spring 2019

Spring 2019

Fall 2018

Fall 2018

Spring 2018

Barnard College of Columbia University

Teaching Fellow

Urbanizing China (by Nick Smith)

Fall 2020

Travel Initiative Grant, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies and Harvard China Fund

July 2021

Doctor of Design Research Grant, Harvard Graduate School of Design

May 2021

Dissertation Writing Grant, Harvard Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Apr 2021

Travel Essay Grant, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies

Dec 2020

Doctor of Design Research Grant, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Jun 2020

Summer Research Fund, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies

May 2020

Desmond Shum Fellowship, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies (declined)

May 2020

Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Harvard University

Apr 2020

Tao & Cheng Winter Research Fund, Harvard Asia Center 

Nov 2019

Summer Research Grant, Harvard Ash Center China Programs

Apr 2019

Summer Research Fund, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies

Apr 2019

O’Friel Winter Research Fund, Harvard Asia Center

Nov 2018

Conference Fund, Harvard Fairbank Center of Chinese Studies

Nov 2018

Research Fund, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

May 2018

Student Forum Conference Fund, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Feb 2018

Victor and William Fung Foundation Fund, Harvard Asia Center

Nov 2017

Master in Design Studies Final Project Award, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Mar 2016

Scholarship for Master Study Abroad, China Scholarship Council

May 2015

Tec-hand Scholarship, Shenzhen Tec-hand Ecology & Environment Co., Ltd.

Jun 2014

Scholarship for Education Abroad Program, Peking University

Feb 2014

President Fellowship, Peking University

Sep 2013

Scholarship for Tourism Planning Research, BES International Consulting

Jun 2013

Sino Group Scholarship, Sino Group

Sep 2012

Freshman Fellowship, Peking University

Jan 2011

[Books]

Boya Guo, Introduction to Heritage Conservation: History, Politics, and Practices, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.

Forthcoming,

2025

Boya Guo and Peter G. Rowe, An Early Modern View: Qianlong’s Plan of Beijing. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Forthcoming,

2025

Boya Guo, The Problems and Politics of Authenticity in Chinese Heritage Practices, Doctor of Design Dissertation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Design.

May 2022

Boya Guo (ed.), Radical Technologies: Re-examining the Contemporary Order on the 50th Anniversary of 1968. Beijing: Pills Press. (online published)

Jun 2019

[Book Chapters]

Boya Guo, “Restrained Freedom: A Brief History of Urban Grids,” Grid, pp.72-87. Lucida Books/Beijing United Publishing Company.

Jan 2024

Boya Guo, “Commentary on ‘The Heritage Industry’”, A Guide to the Main Works on Global Cultural Heritage, Guanghan Li and Siyu Wang (eds.). Shanghai Classics Publishing House.

Forthcoming,

2024

Boya Guo, “Critical Chinese Copying as an Interrogation of the Hegemony of Authenticity”, Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage, Anke Hein and Christopher Foster (eds.). London: Routledge.

Mar 2023

[Peer-Reviewed Papers]

Su, C., Guo, B. More-than-land: conserving the social fabrics of the Kat O coastal settlements in Hong Kong. Built Heritage 8, 50 (2024).

Oct 28,

2024

Doussard, Claire, Peter G. Rowe, Pauline Detavernier, and Boya Guo. 2024. Metabolism and Urban Design: Insights from the Champs–Elysées, Paris Sustainability 16, no. 2: 603. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020603

Jan 2024

Boya Guo, “The Quest for the Unity of Knowledge: The Forerunner of Heritage Studies David Lowenthal”, Journal of Archaeology and Museology no.2 (2022): pp. 108-114. 

Jun 2022

[Translated Books]

Till We have Built Jerusalem: Architects of A New City by Adina Hoffman

Co-translators: Keyang Tang, Yingnan Shang, Leyuan Li, Zhuozhang Li, Shan Jiang. Beijing: Beijing Joint Publishing Company.

Dec 2017

[Non-Peer-Reviewed Articles]

Boya Guo, “Jiaxing Railway Station In Forest: An Urban Regeneration Question Facing History and People”, Wallpaper China. (online readership: 29,100)

Jul.1 2021

Boya Guo, “Problem Solver: The City of Future”, Wallpaper China. (online readership: 20,600)

Nov.10 2019

Boya Guo, “Urban Space and Power Conflict in Seattle”, The Paper. (online readership: 2,413)

Jul.19 2016

Boya Guo, Jiamin Zheng, Xiaodan Li. “Space in Modernism: The Death and Life of Qilou Based on Walter Benjamin’s Spatial Aesthetic Theories”, Defining the Elements of Urbanism, ed. Tigran Haas, Stockholm: KTH (Royal Institute of Technology)

2015

“Water and Politics: The Case of Quanzhou World Heritage Site”

Invited Lecture in the Seminar “Liquid Homes: The Nature of Architecture And The Architecture Of Nature” at University of Hong Kong.

“The History of Conservation and the Conservation of History”

Invited Lecture in the Seminar Series “Architecture Studies in Multiple Contexts” at Tianjin University, China.

Nov 2022

Jun 2021

“Critical Chinese Copying”

Invited Lecture in the Seminar Series “Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage” at the University of Oxford, UK.

Feb 2021

“The History of Conservation and the Conservation of History”

Invited Lecture in the Seminar Series “Architecture and Modernity” at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China.

Dec 2020

“Transitional Socialist Urban Form in Comparative Perspective: Micro-district in USSR and Danwei in China 1955-1976”

Invited Lecture for the Course “Cultivated Imaginaries: Superblock and the Idea of the City” at Syracuse University, USA.

Nov 2020

“[Re]FORM: New Investigations in Urban Form”, Harvard Doctor of Design Biennial Conference, co-convened with Dr. Liang Wang and Dr. Mojdeh Mahdavi

Presenters and Panelists: Shlomo Angel, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Neil Brenner, Kees Christiaanse, Diane Davis, Colin McFarlane, Neyran Turan, Charles Waldheim, Sarah Williams.

Sep 2018

“Is the Present a ‘Foreign Country’? Modernity and Urban Space in Comparative Perspective” co-convened with Dr. Yimin Zhao at Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK.

Aug 2018

“The Problems of Authenticity in Chinese Heritage Practices”

The 5^th International Young Scholar Forum in Design and Innovation, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Dec 2022

“The Problems of Authenticity in Chinese Heritage Practices”

The 4^th International Young Scholar Forum, College and Urban and Environmental Studies, Peking University

Dec 2022

“‘Blind Men’ Fighting For ‘An Elephant’: Power Dynamics in Quanzhou’s Heritage Practices”

Biennial Conference of Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Santiago, Chile.

Dec 2022

“Multiple Temporalities: Critical Chinese Copying as an Interrogation of the Hegemony of Modernity”

Biennial Conference of Association of Critical Heritage Studies, London, UK.

Aug 2020

“Travels in Simulacra Reality: An Absolute Inexactness”

“Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes” symposium at Goethe-Institue Beijing

Jul 2019

“Transitional Socialist Urban Form in Comparative Perspective: Micro-district in USSR and Danwei in China 1955-1976”

In “Spatialised Governmentality: China and the Global Context” conference at Royal College of Art, London, UK.

Dec 2018

“Multiple Temporalities: Critical Chinese Copying as an Interrogation of the Hegemony of Modernity”

In “Is the Present a ‘Foreign Country’? Modernity and Urban Space in Comparative Perspective” at Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK.

Aug 2018

Pills Office, Beijing

Research Associate

Project Lead for the Exhibition Outline and Conservation Plan of Kaiyuan Industrial Museum, Yunnan

Curation Assistant for Steel Home Still: Exhibition of Urban Regeneration Achievements of Shougang Industrial Heritage Park and No.3 Blast Furnace Museum

2017-Present

World Heritage Research Center of Peking University, Beijing

Research Assistant

Research on China-related Heritage for the Extended 44th Session of the World Heritage Committee

Mar-Aug

2021

The University of Hong Kong, Department of Architecture, Hong Kong

Research Assistant

Tsuen Wan City Hall Conservation Plan and Analysis

CUHK Shenzhen Campus Plan

Jun-Aug

2019

Cultural Heritage Conservation Center of Guo Wen Yan Co., Ltd., Beijing

Research Assistant

Research for the Heritage Conservation of “Tea-Horse Road” in Southwest China

May-Aug

2016

ArchiCreation Journal, Beijing

Assistant Director of New Media

Conducted Architectural and Urban Related Interviews and Wrote Articles

Feb-Jun

2015

China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Beijing

Assistant Planner

Historic City Planning of Datong, Shanxi

Conservation Planning of Chang’an Lock of the Grand Canal, Zhejiang

Jul-Oct

2014

World Heritage Research Center of Peking University, Beijing

Research Assistant

Conservation Planning of Yandang Scenic Area, Zhejiang

Jun-Jul

2013

[Exhibition Curated]

Me: We

Exhibition Proposal on New Collectivism. Power Station of Art, Shanghai.

Co-Curate with Su Chang, Sharon Deng

Jul 2018

[Exhibition Featuring Design and Research]

Activating Design Research (Group Exhibition)

A documentary video about Chinese architectural mimicry

CGIS Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

May 2017

Research Itineraries, Critical Conservation (Group Exhibition)

Investigated photograph as atravel document and mode of inquiry in th sharing of first-hand summer research materials

40K Gallery, Cambridge, MA, USA

Oct-Nov 2016

Appropriate Memories (MetaLAB Group Exhibition)

“Zootopia”, remixing an extensive set of photographs from American Professional Photographers Collection (APPC)

Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, USA

Jan 2016

“Paintings for Designers” Course Exhibition (Memories, Textures, Public Space, Body)

Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, USA

May 2016

Harvard Doctor of Design Program

Liaison and Student Representative

2019-2020

Harvard ChinaGSD

Vice-President, Academic Affairs

Academic Chair and Lecture Series Coordinator

2018-2019

Harvard Visual China

Vice-President and Director of Operations, in collaboration with the Department of History of Art and Architecture

2016-2020