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Yining Tan

Assistant Professor of Practice
yining tan

ENR2 S421

520-621-1652
yiningtan@arizona.edu

Yining Tan is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona.  

Yining’s research expertise lies in human and urban geography, focusing on im/mobility and social inequality across scales and places. Supported by a Russell Sage Foundation Pipeline Grant, her current work examines how skilled migrants navigate intergenerational family care and its implications for economic mobility and gender equity. Related projects, funded by Faculty Small Grants from the Social & Behavioral Sciences Research Institute at the University of Arizona, investigate how the “zero generation” (parents of first-generation immigrants) engage in multi-scalar mobilities and intergenerational care, shaping access to housing and healthcare in Arizona. 

Her award-winning dissertation, supported by an AAG Dissertation Grant and recipient of the AAG Nystrom Award, advances a capital–mobility framework grounded in intersectionality to analyze skilled Americans’ spatial, occupational, and social im/mobility in China. More broadly, her research contributes to urban equity scholarship on economic development, the built environment, and socio-cultural integration in cities. 

Her work has been accepted for publication in journals such as Social & Cultural Geography, The Professional Geographer, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Cities, Asian Geographer, International Migration, and International Development Policy, among others. 

Yining’s teaching and curriculum development strengthen the Urban and Regional Development program, where she regularly teaches courses including Urban Growth and Development, Population Geography, Economic Geography, Principles and Practices of Regional Development, Problems in Regional Development, and Working with Numeric, Spatial, and Visual Data. Her engaged, place-based, and research-integrated pedagogy fosters inclusive learning environments for diverse students across instructional modalities. Her teaching has been recognized as “inspirational and exceptional” in the University of Arizona’s Graduating Senior Survey. 

Yining obtained her bachelor’s degree from Sun Yat-sen University in China, a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California, and a doctoral degree in geography from Arizona State University, with a certificate in Immigration Studies.