Staff profile

New Book: The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China (SUNY Press 2025)

Can a student inherit time? What difference does time make to their educational journeys and outcomes? The Time Inheritors draws on nearly a decade of field research with more than one hundred youth in China to argue that intergenerational transfers of privilege or deprivation are manifested in and through time. Comparing experiences of rural-to-urban, cross-border, and transnational education, Cora Lingling Xu shows how inequalities in time inheritance help drive deeply unequal mobility. With its unique focus on time, nuanced comparative analysis, and sensitive ethnographic engagement, The Time Inheritors opens new avenues for understanding the social mechanisms shaping the future of China and the world.

Release dates

Hardcover: 1st April 2025; Paperback version: 1st October 2025

For upcoming book talks, interviews, and reviews of The Time Inheritors, visit here. See this page for Frequently Asked Questions about this book. To stay informed about this book, leave your details in this contact form.

Biography

Cora is a sociologist interested in education mobilities and social inequalities. Her research examines how the intersection of class, gender, ethnicity, rural-urban divides, time, and geopolitics can shape social agents’ educational and life trajectories. Cora draws heavily on social theories to inform her empirical research, including Bourdieu’s theory of practice, sociology of time, and postcolonial theories. Cora’s geographical focuses include China (mainland China, Hong Kong) and the UK. Cora's research on Chinese international students in the UK has been featured in BBC Radio 4's documentary 'Chinese on Campus', and on BBC News. Cora is visiting scholar at the Centre for International Higher Education (CIHE), Boston College, USA in Spring 2025. 

Cora is an Executive Editor of the British Journal of Sociology of Education and serves as an editorial board member of multiple high impact journals, including Critical Studies in Education and Cambridge Journal of Education. She is a top peer reviewer for more than 30 international journals.

Cora’s research has been funded by the British Sociological Association, The Sociological Review Foundation, the ESRC Methods North West, The National Social Science Fund of China, Monash University Malaysia, and the Cambridge International Trust.

Cora is founder and director of Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities (NRCEM). The NRCEM is a cross-disciplinary network that attracts more than 500 members from across Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. 

Cora received her PhD in Sociology of Education from the University of Cambridge in 2016, as a Cambridge Trust scholar. She obtained her MA from King’s College London as a British Chevening scholar and her Bachelor’s from the Education University of Hong Kong as an Outstanding Mainland scholar. A qualified teacher, she taught English as a second language for five years in two Hong Kong secondary schools.　

A Fellow of the Advance HE (FHEA), at Durham, Cora convenes modules on the BA Education Studies and MA programmes; Cora also supervises Master's and doctoral dissertations. Before joining Durham University, Cora worked at Keele University as Lecturer in Education (Assistant Professor) between 2016 and 2020.

Cora is enthusiastic about career education of postgraduate (especially doctoral) researchers. Since January 2021, Cora has established her YouTube and Bilibili channels to share advice on academic writing, publication and job searches. 

Cora is on Research Leave in 2024-25 academic year.

Completed Supervisions

Bourdieu and Brand-Me: Agri-food Higher Education students’ experiences of securing industrial placements and employment, and through personal branding strategies.

 

Information for Prospective Doctoral Research Student Supervisions

Cora is interested to work with students on areas of inquiry related to rural-urban inequalities, ethnic minority experiences, international student and academic mobilities, transnational institutional and knowledge mobilities. She is keen to explore opportunities facilitated by creative and qualitative research methods. She would be pleased to investigate how social theories can inform such empirical research.

• Sociology of time
• International student mobility (ISM)
• Academic mobility
• Bourdieu
• China studies
• Ethnic minority experience
• Rural-urban inequalities
• Study-to-work transition

• 2000: B. Editorship & Editorial Board Membership:

  Executive Editor: British Journal of Sociology of Education

  Editorial Board Member: Cambridge Journal of Education; Critical Studies in Education; International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, Beijing International Review of Education; Polish Journal of Educational Studies.

• 2000: C. External Awards:

  2018 British Journal of Sociology of Education Best Early Career Article 2017: shortlisted

  2013 Best Paper Award (Emerging Researchers) Prize and Conference Bursary, European Conference of Educational Research

• 2000: A. External Examiner and Grant Reviewer Roles:

  External PhD examiner: University of Edinburgh, University of Bristol, University of York, UK; University of New South Wales, Australia; University of Auckland, New Zealand; University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

  External grant reviewer: Education University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University

  External examiner: BSc Education, University of Manchester (2022-2024); MA Education, Policy and Society, King's College London (2021-2024); MA Education programme, University of Northampton (2019-2023)
• 2000: D. Invited Keynotes and Talks: 2024 Keynote Speech on ‘The portrayals of Chinese international students: A critical review through postcolonial lenses’, 2nd ENIS Summer School - Connecting ECRs in the field, 5 September.

  2018 Keynote Speech on ‘A Typology of Contemporary Chinese Higher Education Mobilities and Belt and Road Initiative’, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, 8 November.

  2022 Public lecture on 'The portrayal of Chinese international students: A critical review', The Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester, 3 March. Watch the full length lecture, section on my post-colonial approach, section on the neoliberal subject positioning. 

  2021 Workshop on 'Academic Writing Groups', East China Normal University Review of Education, China, 23 November. 

  2021 Paper on ‘Career imagination, transnational distinction, and family-mediated migration infrastructure: Chinese international students to the UK’ at Webminar on ‘International student mobility’ organised by Education University of Hong Kong, 8 November.

  2021 Lecture on Chinese Higher Education Mobilities at Cambridge Chinese Education Forum, University of Cambridge, 19 June.

  2021 Workshop on ‘Getting an academic job in the UK as an international student’ at Department of Education, University of Oxford, 11 June.

  2021 Distinguished Panel on ‘Global Mobility’, Graduate Forum, Ontario Institute of Education Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, 15 May.

  2021 Graduate Lecture on ‘The making of transnational distinction: Chinese women international students’ mobility to the UK’, Ontario Institute of Education Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, 7 April.

  2021 Graduate Lecture on ‘Cross-border student mobilities in contemporary China’, Old Dominion University, USA, 3 March.

Book review

• Xu, C. L. (2020). ‘Marginal’ student mobilities: Cruel promise, everyday mobile belonging and emotional geographies. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(5), 750-754. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2020.1766813
• Xu, C. L. (2017). Chinese student migration, gender and family, Anni Kajanus (2015). Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 1(1), 139-141. https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm.1.1.137_5
• Xu, C. L. (2016). Constructing modern Asian citizenship. Comparative Education, 52(4), 564-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2016.1208498

Journal Article

• Xu, C. L. (online). Epistemic injustice and neo-racism: How Zhihu users portray ‘Chinese doctoral supervisors’ working in Western academia. Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01272-4
• Xu, C. L. (2023). ‘Diaspora at home’: class and politics in the navigation of Hong Kong students in Mainland China’s Universities. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 32(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2019.1700821
• Xu, C. L., & Ma, Y. (2023). Geography-mediated institutionalised cultural capital: Regional inequalities in graduate employment. Journal of Education and Work, 36(1), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2022.2162018
• Li, J., Ai, B., & Xu, C. L. (2022). Examining Burmese students’ multilingual practices and identity positionings at a border high school in China. Ethnicities, 22(2), 233-252. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687968211018881
• Xu, C. L. (2022). Portraying the ‘Chinese international students’: A review of English-language and Chinese-language literature on Chinese international students (2015-2020). Asia Pacific Education Review, 23(1), 151-167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09731-8
• Yang, M., & Xu, C. L. (2022). Getting Ahead While Retaining Ethnic Salience: Educational Mobilities, Class, and Empowerment of a Tibetan Student in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 42(2), 335-349. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1833835
• Hu, Y., Xu, C. L., & Tu, M. (2022). Family-mediated migration infrastructure: Chinese international students and parents navigating (im)mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese Sociological Review, 54(1), 62-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/21620555.2020.1838271
• Xu, C. L. (2021). Time, class and privilege in career imagination: Exploring study-to-work transition of Chinese international students in UK universities through a Bourdieusian lens. Time & Society, 30(1), 5-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x20951333
• Xu, C. L. (2020). Tackling rural-urban inequalities through educational mobilities: rural-origin Chinese academics from impoverished backgrounds navigating higher education. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 4(2), 179-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322969.2020.1783697
• Zhang, S., & Xu, C. L. (2020). The Making of Transnational Distinction: An Embodied Cultural Capital Perspective on Chinese Women Students’ Mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(8), 1251-1267. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2020.1804836
• Xu, C. L., & Montgomery, C. (2019). Educating China on the Move: A Typology of Contemporary Chinese Higher Education Mobilities. Review of Education, 7(3), 598-627. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3139
• Xu, C. L., & Yang, M. (2019). Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(5), 631-646. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1576121
• Xu, C. L. (2018). Political habitus in cross-border student migration: a longitudinal study of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and beyond. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 27(2-3), 255-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2017.1415768
• Xu, C. L. (2018). Transborder habitus in a within-country mobility context: A Bourdieusian analysis of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong. Sociological Review, 66(6), 1128-1144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117732669
• Xu, C. L. (2017). Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(5), 610-624. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1158642
• Xu, C. L. (2015). Identity and cross-border student mobility: The mainland China–Hong Kong experience. European Educational Research Journal, 14(1), 65-73. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904114565155
• Xu, C. L. (2015). When the Hong Kong Dream Meets the Anti-Mainlandisation Discourse: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong. Journal of current Chinese affairs, 44(3), 5-47

Monograph

• Xu, C. L. (2025). The Time Inheritors: How Time Inequalities Shape Higher Education Mobility in China. State University of New York Press