Speaker Series

Each year, the CSCC invites leading experts to Penn to present their research and share their knowledge about contemporary China. Typically scheduled for Wednesday afternoons 4:30-6 pm, speakers will deliver their remarks and then entertain questions from the audience. Attendance is open to the entire Penn community. Announcements about upcoming talks will be posted on the CSCC website and disseminated via the Center’s listserv. To be added to the listserv, please visit our signup page https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cscc-announce.

Upcoming Speaker Series



2025

TBA

Peng Peng, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Global Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

TBA

Yanbai Andrea Wang, Assistant Professor of Law, Penn Carey Law
- PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

Pensions and the Politics of Retirement Age Reform in China

Mark Frazier, Professor of Politics, New School for Social Research
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Raising legal retirement ages, also known as retirement age reform, is politically contentious worldwide, but it should be more easily pursued in non-democratic regimes that can effectively deter opponents from…



2025

The Authoritarian Commons: Neighborhood Democratization in Urban China

Shitong Qiao, Professor of Law, Duke University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Based on six-year fieldwork across China including over 200 in-depth interviews, Qiao’s new book The…



2025

China and Climate Change: Transnational Science, Politics, and Policy in Historical Perspectives

Zuoyue Wang, Professor of History, California State Polytechnic University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2025

Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the US Legal System

Ji Li, John S. & Marilyn Long Chair of US-China Business and Law, UC Irvine
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Despite escalating geopolitical rivalry, the US and China continue to be economically intertwined. Numerous Chinese companies have made substantial investments in the US and are reluctant to exit this strategically…



2025

From Empire to Nation-State: War, Emulation, and National Identity in China

Jie Yang, Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

This article examines when, why, and how national identity emerged in China. We argue that war acted as a catalyst for two distinct psychological mechanisms: enmity (humiliation and other negative emotions) and…



2025

TBA

Elizabeth Wishnick, Senior Research Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Past Speaker Series



2024

The Role of Industrial Firms in China’s Efforts to Mitigate Climate Change

Valerie Karplus, Professor of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

China’s climate change pledge targets carbon neutrality by 2060. Policies and plans have begun to support decarbonization domestically while at the same time the country is becoming an increasingly important supplier…



2024

Adversarial Comparativism: The Role of Emotion in US-China Comparative Law Projects

Matthew Erie, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies, Oxford University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Theodore Roosevelt once wrote “comparison is the thief of joy.” Nowhere may this be more apparent than in the US-China relationship. Whether it’s the size of economies or navies, Olympic gold medal count, box office…



2024

Value-Form Queer Theory

Petrus Liu, Professor of Chinese & Comparative Literature and of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Boston University
- 2nd Floor, Robert S. Blank Forum, PCPSE Building, 133 S. 36th St

Co-sponsored by Theorizing Colloquium Series of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, with special thanks to…



2024

Examining US-China Strategic Competition: The Case of China’s Global Initiatives in the United Nations System

Courtney J. Fung, Associate Professor of Security Studies & Criminology, Macquarie University, Australia
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

China’s well-reported multilateral rise is presumed to challenge US leadership a Western-dominated United Nations system. Amongst China’s many multilateral contributions are its advance of ‘Global Initiatives,’ which…



2024

How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control: Agency, Cognition, and the Politics of Information

Dali Yang, William Claude Reavis Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

In this book talk, Dali Yang, author of Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control(…



2024

Whither the U.S. One China Policy? Perceptions, Interests, and Tensions over the Taiwan Strait

Dalei Jie, Associate Professor of International Studies, Peking University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

In recent years, China has accused the U.S. of “hollowing out” its own one China policy, while the Biden administration has insisted that its one China policy has not changed. The talk establishes an analytical…



2024

Disorienting Politics: Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements

Fan Yang, Professor of Media and Communication Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
- Annenberg School for Communication, Room 500, 3620 Walnut Street

Register via Eventbrite



2024

The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge in Sino-U.S. Relations

David Zweig, Professor Emeritus, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Professor Zweig discusses his new book The War for Chinese Talent in America: The Politics of Technology and Knowledge…



2024

Deadly Decision in Beijing: Succession Politics, Protest Repression and the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre

Yang Su, Professor of Sociology, UC Irvine
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Professor Su discussed his recent book Deadly Decision in Beijing: Succession Politics, Protest Repression and the 1989…



2024

The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China

Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Based on her book The Gilded Cage, Professor Lei will…