India China Institute

Concluding Panel: India and China in the Making of a Post Liberal World
2025-04-25 15:45 - 17:15 (America/New_York)
SPEAKERS

Prasenjit Duara

Oscar L. Tang Chair of East Asian Studies, Duke University

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He has held teaching positions at the National University of Singapore, as well as the University of Chicago, where he was the Chair of the Department of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies. He holds a PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University.
Duara works in the fields of modern Chinese history, decolonization, and the global history of modernity. His scholarship questions the conventional understanding of the nation-state, sovereignty, and colonialism; additionally, Duara’s work offers new frameworks for analyzing the cultural and political dimensions of modernity in East Asia. His books include Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942, which won the Fairbank Prize, and The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future. Following the publication of the latter, Duara was awarded the doctor philosophiae honoris causa from the University of Oslo in 2017.

Peter J. Katzenstein

Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

Peter J. Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He has been a longtime faculty member at Cornell and has played a central role in shaping the university’s programs in international relations and political science, including as editor of the Cornell Studies in Political Economy. Katzenstein has also served as President of the American Political Science Association and has been involved in numerous interdisciplinary initiatives across global academic institutions. He holds several honorary degrees, including from the Peking University and the University of Antwerp, and was awarded the 2020 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Katzenstein earned his PhD from Harvard University.

Katzenstein’s work spans the disciplines of international relations, political economy, and comparative politics. His research explores the role of culture, identity, and regionalism in world politics, with a focus on Europe and Asia. His most recent books are Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, and Protean Power: Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics, co-edited with Lucia Seybert. He is also the author of A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, and has a forthcoming book titled Entanglements in World Politics: The Power of Uncertainty. Katzenstein is actively engaged in scholarly communities, serving on editorial boards for journals such as International Organization and World Politics, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the British Academy.

Kellee Tsai

Distinguished Professor, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University

Kellee Tsai (PhD, Columbia University) is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University. She previously served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Vice Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the East Asian Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University. Tsai is an international board member of the Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore, the Center for Contemporary China Studies at National Tsinghua University, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the India-China Institute at the New School for Social Research, and Taipei School of Economics and Political Science. She has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

Tsai’s research explores the political economy of China, focusing on authoritarian capitalism, informal institutions, party-state capitalism, surveillance, and reverse migration and remittances in China and India. She is the author or editor of seven books, including Back-Alley Banking: Private Entrepreneurs in China (2002), Capitalism without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China (2007), State Capitalism, Institutional Adaptation and the Chinese Miracle (2015), and The State and Capitalism in China (2023). Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and National Science Foundation.

Min Ye

Professor of International Relations, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Min Ye is a Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Ye has received numerous grants and fellowships, including the Smith Richardson Foundation grant and the East Asia Peace, Prosperity, and Governance Fellowship. She was also selected as a Public Intellectual Program fellow by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and as the Rosenberg Scholar of East Asian Studies at Suffolk University. She holds a PhD from Princeton University.

Ye’s research interests include Chinese political economy, China and India comparison, East Asian international relations, and globalization, focusing on transnational immigration and foreign investment. Her research is particularly relevant for understanding the complexities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its growing influence around the world. Ye is the author of The Belt, Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China 1998–2018 and Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India. Her published journal articles cover topics such as the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the role of diasporas in foreign direct investment, and the intersection of globalization with regional and national political agendas.

India China Day 2025
2025-09-25 17:00 - 18:30 | UL 104, University Centre, 63 5th Ave, New York, New York, 10003, United States
Join us for our annual India China Day to celebrate this year's cohort of student fellows and hear about their research projects. Also meet new and old ICI friends, learn about new ICI fellowships, opportunities, and programs for the new academic year. Five student fellows from the current cohort will present their research findings.

SPEAKERS

Aratrika Debrath
PhD, Public and Urban Policy, School of Public Engagement

Hungry Tides: Climate Migration and Resettlement Planning in the Sundarbans
This project examines climate-induced migration in the Sundarbans region spanning India and Bangladesh. Through fieldwork with displaced communities and analysis of stakeholder perspectives, it aims to produce policy solutions that support resilience and protection for climate migrants.

Emily Li
BFA, Politics and Communication Design, Parsons School of Design

Precarious Labor and Political Identity of South Asian Platform Workers in Hong Kong
This project explores how South Asian food delivery workers in Hong Kong organize and resist exploitation, especially in the context of rising precarity and weakened trade unions. It focuses on how ethnic identity shapes labor activism and the possibilities for collective struggle in modern Hong Kong.

Parth Patel
MFA, Design And Technology, Parsons School of Design

Off Grid Assemblies
Off Grid Assemblies aims to co-design a low-cost energy kit with the community of Turtuk— a remote village in Leh, India. As an alternative to limited diesel generation, this project aims to build a decentralized, self-sufficient, and resilient off-grid electricity source for rural communities dealing with extreme climates.

Nolan Young
MA, International Affairs, School of Public Engagement

E-Commerce as Rural Development Strategy in China — Contours of a Public-Private Partnership
This project examines the public-private partnership model between the Chinese government and private e-commerce platforms as a rural development strategy. The project seeks to identify tangible forms of state involvement, and to understand the impacts on local communities as well as possible implications for global development.

Florian Chi Zhang
MA, Anthropology, The New School of Social Research

Seeking Taohuayuan in a Foreign Land: Chinese New Migrants in Southeast Asia
This project explores Chinese migration to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and how these migrants build new communities and navigate local society. Through ethnographic research, it connects this migration trend to the history of Chinese immigration in Thailand and shifting ideas of mobility, hope, and China's global role.

Constrained Expertise In India and China - Panel 1
2025-10-23 09:00 - 10:30
We invite you to join us for the launch of "Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking", a publication emerging from our international research seminar The Shifting Geographies of Expertise and Policymaking. This seminar brought together 12 scholars and practitioners from India, China, and beyond to explore expertise and policymaking across fields including energy, public health, education, housing, pandemic responses, and rural and urban development. The book is edited by Professors Manjari Mahajan and Mark W. Frazier, Co-Directors of the India China Institute.
"Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking" explores what kinds of knowledge and knowledge purveyors get mobilized and privileged, and what gets sidelined in policymaking in India and China. Through its detailed empirical studies in both countries, the volume illuminates a trend of increasing concentration of political authority which has frequently demanded that experts be aligned with the central government's agenda.
The first panel, on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 9:00am EST, will focus on expertise that is embedded within a state bureaucracy and executive. The cases from India and China point to the need for new conceptual categories that break down established binaries between political and epistemic authority that have dominated much of the debate and theorization about expertise.
SPEAKERS

Rohit Chandra
Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Indian Institute of Technology
"Pushing and Pulling: Institutional Underpinnings of Energy Transitions in India and China"

Ka-Kin Cheuk
Assistant Professor in Anthropology, University of Southampton
"Beyond Local State Corporatism and Entrepreneurial Political Selves: A Governance Assemblage Perspective on the Management of Foreigners in a Chinese County"

Loraine Kennedy
CNRS Research Director, Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris
"Policy-making and Expertise in Telangana State: Mediating Knowledge and Interests in Pursuit of Economic Development and Social Justice in Hyderabad"

Wenjuan Zhang
Professor and Associate Dean (International Collaboration), Jindal global Law School (on leave); Senior Counsel, Beijing Zhicheng Law Firm
"Divergence of Universal Elementary Education Policy Implementation Measurement and the Culture of Expertise in India and China"

Yu Zhou
Professor of Geography and Chair of Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College
"Knowledge and Power: China's High-tech Industry and the Perils of a Shifting Global Knowledge Hierarchy"

Constrained Expertise In India and China - Panel 2
2025-10-30 09:00 - 10:30
{VIRTUAL BOOK TALK}

We invite you to join us for the launch of “Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking”, a publication emerging from our international research seminar The Shifting Geographies of Expertise and Policymaking. This seminar brought together 12 scholars and practitioners from India, China, and beyond to explore expertise and policymaking across fields including energy, public health, education, housing, pandemic responses, and rural and urban development. The book is edited by Professors Manjari Mahajan and Mark W. Frazier, Co-Directors of the India China Institute.

“Constrained Expertise in India and China: Knowledge and Power in Policymaking” explores what kinds of knowledge and knowledge purveyors get mobilized and privileged, and what gets sidelined in policymaking in India and China. Through its detailed empirical studies in both countries, the volume illuminates a trend of increasing concentration of political authority which has frequently demanded that experts be aligned with the central government’s agenda.

The second panel, on Thursday, Oct. 30 at 9:00am EST, will discuss knowledge that emerges from social movements, grassroots communities, and local governments, and how it influences, or gets sidelined, in policymaking processes.

SPEAKERS

Thresia CUSenior Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies (New Delhi)

“Shifting Locations of Knowledge Production for Health Policies: Community Engagement in Palliative Care in the Indian State of Kerala”

Ceren Ergenc

Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

“Expert-Policymaker Relationship in China’s Urban Waste Governance”

Avinash Madhale

Program Director, Urban Programmes, Center for Environment Education, India

“Struggle for Stability: Coping with COVID-19 Community-Led Actions and Learning from M-East Ward of Mumbai”

Kesava Chandra Varigonda

Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore

“Challenging the Centralised Hierarchy of Civil Nuclear Policy and Expertise in India: Anti-nuclear Opposition from the mid-2000s to late-2010s”

Yang ZHAN

Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Department of Applied Social Sciences; A Managing Committee Member of the China and Global Development Network, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

“Gendering Scholar Activism in China’s Rural Development”

News Media in an Authoritarian Age
2025-11-13 17:00 - 18:30 | A 407, 66 West 12th Street, New York
SUMMARY

On November 13, 2025, India China Institute (ICI) hosted an in-person panel discussion on the shifting landscapes of news media in India, China, the US, UK, and beyond. Moderated by Manjari Mahajan, Co-Director of ICI, panelists discussed how regimes of India, China, the US, and the UK have tried to restrict what journalists and writers produce, as well as coping strategies that are being deployed in response. The panelists were Sipan Li, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University; Jonathan Derbyshire, US Opinion Editor at Financial Times; and Rollo Romig, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist Journalist.

Sipan Li is a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a scholar-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and an associate professor at the Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication at Shantou University in China. A journalist, scholar, and feminist advocate, she has written extensively on public discourse, China's feminist movement, the development of women's NGOs, and social media activism.

Sipan Li noted that trends in Chinese journalism over the past decade include the undermining of institutional and investigative journalism, judicial and police control becoming a routine tool of repression, and smear campaigns being used to discredit journalists and undermine media credibility. Despite these challenges, journalists find ways to mitigate the negative effects of repression. Li explained that when a journalist conducts an interview for a major news story—even if the report is never published or is published but quickly deleted—it can still be shared in a bookstore event. The act of sharing itself becomes a process of creating content.

Jonathan Derbyshire is the Financial Times' US opinion editor. He was previously Managing Editor of Prospect, Britain's leading monthly magazine of politics and ideas, and Culture Editor of the New Statesman. Derbyshire has also written for a number of other publications, including The Guardian, The Observer, and the Times Literary Supplement. He emphasized the upheavals in the media landscape in the US, especially for international journalists who now face new challenges relating to visas and threats of summary deportation. But he also pointed to how US domestic media, such as NPR, PBS, and their member stations, have been targeted by the federal elimination of $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting. Derbyshire provided examples of how both traditional and new media organizations might respond.

Rollo Romig, who currently manages the Solutions Insights Lab at Solutions Journalism Network, pointed out that tactics used against journalists in India are manifold, from trolling and harassment to defamation lawsuits that distract journalists from their work to political pressure on newsroom editors. Despite the challenges journalists face, Romig expressed hope for Indian journalism. "Every time I go back to India, the thing that surprises me the most is how many young people I meet who are absolutely fervent about starting careers in journalism. These young people are incredibly brave, and I don't think this hunger for truth is something that can be suppressed," he said.

The panel discussion was followed by an interactive Q&A session covering the role of diaspora journalism, the complex relationship between democracy and journalism, and the importance of local context in shaping journalists' activism. The panelists also offered thoughtful insights on new forms of independent journalism—its innovations and limitations.

SPEAKERS

Jonathan Derbyshire

US Opinion Editor, Financial Times

Jonathan Derbyshire is the Financial Times' (FT) US opinion editor. He was previously Managing Editor of Prospect, Britain's leading monthly magazine of politics and ideas, and Culture Editor of the New Statesman. Jonathan has also written for a number of other publications, including the Guardian, the Observer and the Times Literary Supplement. In a previous life, he taught philosophy in several British universities.

Sipan Li

Visiting Scholar, Stanford University

LI, Jun (also known as LI, Sipan, 李思磐), Ph.D., is a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a scholar-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, and an associate professor at the Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication at Shantou University in China. A journalist, scholar, and feminist advocate, she has written extensively on public discourse, China's feminist movement, the development of women's NGOs, and social media activism. Her doctoral research, Social Movement, Media, and the State: The New Feminist Movement with Communication as Core in Contemporary China (2003–2016), examines these dynamics in depth.

Rollo Romig

Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Journalist, Critic, Essayist

Born and raised in Detroit, Rollo Romig is a journalist, essayist, critic, and the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist "I Am on the Hit List: A Journalist's Murder and the Rise of Autocracy in India." He has been reporting on South India since 2013, most often for The New York Times Magazine. His book "I Am on the Hit List" is a gripping investigation into the mysterious assassination of a journalist in India, revealing the courage and vulnerability of those who are fighting the decline of democracy around the world.

China and India in Africa: Comparative Assessments on Trade, Technology, and Knowledge Flows
2026-02-12 09:00 - 10:00
While much attention has been centered on China in Africa and Global China as a lens through which to examine changing patterns of investment and infrastructure in Africa, this panel puts the China in Africa paradigm in a comparative perspective with India, which has longstanding commercial and trade ties with East and South Africa.
This online panel will assess Indian and Chinese engagements in Africa through the lens of technology transfers, skills upgrading, educational exchanges, and knowledge flows. Participants will explore patterns of expertise and technology transfer, higher education partnerships, cross-border research collaborations, and supply chains, among other forms of engagement between Chinese and Indian organizations with African counterparts.
SPEAKERS

Antonio Andreoni
Professor of Development Economics, SOAS University of London & Co-Director of the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation

He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor at the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London (UCL), UK. He also holds an ASN National Habilitation to Full Professor in Economics in Italy. At SOAS, Antonio is Convenor for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the College of Development, Economics and Finance (CODEF) and Chair of the SOAS Knowledge Exchange Committee. He previously served as Head of Research for…Read More

Veda Vaidyanathan
Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi & Associate, Harvard University Asia Center

Veda Vaidyanathan is a Fellow in Foreign Policy and Security Studies at CSEP. She examines Asian engagement in Africa from the grassroots, across multiple sectors and countries. These include financial services, mining, agriculture, infrastructure, and manufacturing in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Veda is also affiliated to the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Harvard University Asia Centre. She was a 2022-23 Fung Global Fellow at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies at Princeton University.

The Legal Infrastructure for Physical Artificial Intelligence in China
2026-03-09 13:00 - 14:30
This talk offers a comprehensive account of how law serves as a critical layer of infrastructure supporting China's development of physical AI—systems embedded in and operating in the physical world. The discussion expands on Angela Huyue Zhang's paper, The Sixth Layer: The Legal Infrastructure for Physical Artificial Intelligence in China. Zhang is currently conducting research on the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Read her recently published article The Sixth Layer: The Legal Infrastructure for Physical Artificial Intelligence in China here.
SPEAKER

Angela Huyue Zhang
Professor of Law, USC Gould School of Law

Widely recognized as a leading authority on Chinese tech regulation, she has written extensively on this topic. Her first book, Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation, was named one of the Best Political Economy Books of the Year by ProMarket in 2021. Her second book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy, released in March 2024, has been covered in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Wire China, MIT Tech Review and many other international news outlets. Read more

Shifting Boundaries of State and Civil Society in India and China
2026-03-12 09:00 - 10:00
We are pleased to invite you to a thought-provoking discussion that explores how boundaries between state and civil society have been historically drawn, reshaped, and reimagined in India and China from their founding days to the present moment.
This panel will explore how civil society emerged alongside state power in India and China, the role of non-state actors in welfare and governance, and how aspirations for democracy are expressed and contested in both countries. The discussion will analyze the shifting boundaries of power, accountability, and civic action, offering fresh insights into the future of democratization in Asia.
MODERATOR

Nidhi Srinivas
Professor of Management, The New School

Nidhi Srinivas's research centers on social innovation and postcolonial studies, mobilizing critical theory to study a variety of topics, including management history, international development, mutual aid, ecological politics and civic design. Read more
SPEAKERS

Ajay Gudavarthy
Associate Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Ajay Gudavarthy has authored and edited several books on Indian politics, including India after Modi: Populism and the Right (Bloomsbury, Delhi, 2018), and Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics (Edited, Sage, 2019). Gudavarthy has served as Visiting Fellow/Faculty in universities in India and abroad, including the University of Calcutta, Gottingen University and Tubingen University, Germany. Read more

Carolyn L. Hsu
Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity, Colgate University

Carolyn Hsu's research interests include Chinese civil society, citizenship, NGOs, social movements and activism, the social credit system, social entrepreneurship, morality and values. She is part of the research group that conducts the Civic Participation in China Survey, which has been tracking changes in the relationship between citizens and the state in China since 2018, including new forms of activism and mobilization. Read more
