Ding Fei received her Ph.D. from the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota. She has research interests in the political economy of international development and planning, global production networks, infrastructure-led industrialization, capital-labor relations, South-South migration, and China-Africa relations. 

Between 2022 and 2025, Fei serves on the executive board of China Geography Specialty Group at the American Association of Geographers. She is also an executive board member of the Chinese-in-Africa/Africans-in-China Research Network.