Dr. Xiangning Li is dean and a professor of history, theory and criticism at Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Xiangning has been a jury member for many international awards and competitions including the Spanish International Architectural Award, the Mies van der Rohe Award and the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. He has taught and lectured in universities and institutes including Princeton University, TU Darmstadt and UCLA.

He was co-curator of the Chengdu Biennale in 2011, academic director and curator of Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale in 2013, curator of Shanghai's West Bund Biennale in 2013 and curator for Shanghai's Urban Space Art Season in both 2015 and 2017. He served as director for the Busan Architectural Culture Festival in 2017 and recently curated the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2018.

He is also a member of the Comité International des Critiques d'Architecture and Secretary General of China Architectural Society Architectural Criticism Committee.

Some of his recent books include The Real and the Imagined: A Study of Value in Contemporary Urban Theory 2009. Made in Shanghai 2014 and Towards a Critical Pragmatism: Contemporary Chinese Architecture 2018.