India China Institute

ONLINE | Trajectories of Authoritarianism in Democratic Regimes
2024-11-14 09:00 - 10:30 (America/New_York) | Online
In an era of global democratic decline, elected leaders have tapped economic and other grievances and resentments, harnessed new coalitions, and created popular narratives that legitimize the concentration of power in single parties and individuals. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India has compromised the integrity and independence of state institutions, and attacked civil society actors, media, academia, and opposition parties. But national elections earlier this year brought surprising results, with Modi’s party losing its parliamentary majority and now governing through a coalition. In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling party were also handed a surprising electoral defeat in local elections in March 2024. Elections in the United States on November 5 for control of the presidency and Congress are among the most closely contested in recent decades, and with the results likely to face legal challenges after Election Day. Through a comparative discussion of India, Turkey, and the United States, this panel will explore how to understand the authoritarian turn, varying modes of repressive governance within democracies and bases of its support, and the channels through which opposition parties and social movements have navigated the fraught political landscape.

SPEAKERS:

Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Laurence S Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching

Princeton University

Full Bio

Senem Aydin Duzgit

Professor of International Relations

Sabanci University, Istanbul

Full Bio

Jeffrey C. Isaac

James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science

Indiana University

Full Bio

Book Talk: Class and Inequality in China and India, 1950–2010 (Oxford, 2024)
2025-02-13 17:00 - 18:30 | Starr Foundation Hall (UL102) University Center (lower level) , 63 5th Ave. (at 13th St), New York City, New York, 10003, United States
China and India have long been central to the world economy. Two and a half centuries ago, they contributed 50% of the world’s output; after suffering a decline thereafter, their share fell to a paltry 9% in 1950 but has since resurged to about 25% today. This book shows that the growth and inequality experiences of China and India have had strikingly similar trajectories, especially after 1980, despite their very different political and social institutions. It offers novel insights using a class lens to analyze and compare the Chinese and Indian inequality stories, locating them within the larger contexts of Asian and global capitalism. Vakulabharanam demonstrates that the interconnectedness between Chinese and Indian growth and inequality dynamics and the transformation and evolution of global capitalism is key to understanding the within-country inequality dynamics in both countries. The book thus offers a new perspective on economic development and inequality that builds on and adds to the insights of Kuznets and Piketty.

About the Author:

Vamsi Vakulabharanam is Co-Director of the Asian Political Economy Program and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has previously taught at the University of Hyderabad and the City University of New York. His recent research focuses on inequality in India and China and the political economy of Indian cities through the axes of gender, caste, class, and religion. In the past, he has worked on agrarian change in developing economies, agrarian cooperatives, and the relationship between economic development and inequality. In 2013, Vakulabharanam was awarded the Amartya Sen award for his contributions to social sciences by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

SPEAKERS

VAMSI VAKULABHARANAM

Associate Professor of Economics
Co-Director, Asian Political Economy Program

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Previously, he taught at the University of Hyderabad (2008-14) and the City University of New York (2004-07). He was a grantee at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET, NY) between 2011 and 2014 on a project titled, ‘Economic Development and Inequality: What Can the Asian Experience Teach Us?’ He was a Fellow of the India China Institute of the New School (NY) between 2008 and 2010. He has worked on issues pertaining to agrarian change in the context of globalization in developing economies, agrarian cooperatives, and the relationship between economic development and inequality. His recent research focuses…Read more

BRANKO MILANOVIC

Research Professor, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Senior Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality

Branko Milanovic obtained his Ph.D. in economics (1987) from the University of Belgrade with a dissertation on income inequality in Yugoslavia. He served as lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years, leaving to write his book on global income inequality, Worlds Apart (2005). He was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (2003-2005) and has held teaching appointments at the University of Maryland (2007-2013) and at...Read more

ANUPAMA RAO

Professor of History and Middle Eastern, South Asian,  and South African Studies

Director, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society Barnard College, Columbia Universit

Barnard College, Columbia University

Anupama Rao, Professor, History and MESAAS (Columbia) has research and teaching interests in gender and sexuality studies; caste and race; historical anthropology; social theory; comparative urbanism; and colonial genealogies of human rights and humanitarianism.

She is Director, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and the convenor of the Ambedkar Initiative, which is supported by the Provost’s Office (Barnard), the Deans of Humanities and Social Sciences (Columbia), the Office of the EVP (Columbia), Columbia University Press, and the Columbia Libraries. She served as…Read more

CARK RISKIN

Professor Emeritus, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Queens College, City University of New York

The core of Professor Riskin’s research has dealt with the complex and changing impact of economic development on people’s lives — what the United Nations calls “human development.” He is the author of China ‘s Political Economy: The Quest for Development since 1949 (Oxford University Press, 1987); Inequality and Poverty in China in the Age of Globalization (with A. R. Khan, Oxford University Press, 2001); and China’s Retreat from Equality (with R. Zhao and S. Li, M. E. Sharpe, 2001), as well as of…Read more

The India China Institute’s 20th Anniversary Symposium
2025-04-24 17:00 - 19:30 | Starr Foundation Hall (UL102), University Center (lower level) 63 5th Ave. (at 13th St), New York City, New York, United States
The India China Institute (ICI) was founded at The New School in 2004 with a generous gift from the Starr Foundation to pursue new ways of thinking about the re-emergence of India and China on the world stage. Its mission was to study connections and flows between China, India and the United States in the context of a globalizing world that was transcending the bounded assumptions of "national interest" and geographies such as of "East Asia," "South Asia" or "the West." Twenty years later, optimism about globalization has been replaced by a disillusionment with liberal promises of mutual prosperity and progress arising from global flows of people, capital, and goods. The international economy is characterized by high tariffs, retaliatory sanctions, and regional trade groupings. States have securitized borders and mobilized grievances against domestic and geopolitical rivals, with raging wars and impending "Cold Wars," exemplifying the collapse of shared global rules of engagement. Investments in public commons and multilateral institutions have been replaced by a discourse and practice of parochial protectionism.

In such an epochal moment of disarray and conflict, how can China and India offer vantage points for understanding a "post-liberal" world? This symposium, marking the twentieth anniversary of ICI, will explore how thinking with the pasts and presents of India, China, and the United States can help us analyze the challenges of the contemporary moment and reflect on alternative futures.

Agenda

Day 1

April 24th 2025, Thursday5:00PM – 7:30PM

Opening Remarks andPanel 1: The University Under a Global Authoritarian Turn

Governments and powerful social actors have both promoted higher education in the service of national power while seeking to place curbs on the teaching, research and political activity of scholars and universities. In 21st century China and India, governments have channeled impressive financial resources into higher education to create world-class research universities. At the same time, they have imposed new restrictions on the curriculum and restricted engagement with sensitive topics, including in some instances eliminating entire disciplinary programs. How broader political discourses and tensions in Indian and Chinese politics play out within their universities make for analogues – but also contrasts – to what is found in the United States. How can universities in our contemporary era produce innovation, new forms of knowledge, and new generation of thinkers needed to address multiple global crises?

This panel will address the contradictions of academic prestige and academic freedom in contemporary India, China, and also the United States, and consider the challenges of international academic exchanges in the current environment.

OPENING REMARKS

Joel TowersUniversity President and University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design, The New School

Joel Towers is the President of The New School and University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design. He has been at The New School for over 20 years, serving previously as the executive dean of the Parsons School of Design. As an architect, Towers has worked on projects that champion environmentally sustainable and socially responsible design. Towers has also played a key role in shaping New York City's climate resilience strategy, co-chairing the New York City Panel on Climate Change. He earned a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.

Towers' academic work focuses on the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and sustainability, with an emphasis on how design solutions can address global environmental challenges. He is particularly interested in the role of architecture in mitigating climate change, designing energy-efficient and socially inclusive urban spaces, and fostering resilience in cities. Towers has published extensively on sustainable design practices, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that integrates ecological, economic, and social considerations. His work at The New School has led to the creation of innovative programs that combine design thinking with policy and social justice, preparing students to lead in an era of rapid environmental and social transformation.

SPEAKERS

Craig Calhoun Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University

Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Prior to this position, he taught at Columbia University, New York University, where he founded the Institute for Public Knowledge, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School and directed the University Center for International Studies. He has also served as president of the London School of Economics, the Social Science Research Council, and the Berggruen Institute. He holds a PhD from Oxford University.

Calhoun has wide-ranging research interests, including critical global issues such as the future of democracy, the impact of technology on work and society, global political economy, and nationalism and social movements. Most recently, he is the co-author of Degenerations of Democracy and co-editor of The Green New Deal and the Future of Work. He is also the author of Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China. Beyond academia, he is deeply involved in public service, sitting on advisory boards for organizations like the MasterCard Foundation and Reset Dialogues.

Apoorvanand Jha (Recorded Remarks)Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi

Apoorvanand Jha is Professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi. He has taught previously at Magadh University and Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University. He earned his Masters and PhD from Patna University. Jha was part of the core group that designed the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in 2005 and was a member of the national Focus Group on Teaching of Indian Languages formed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training.

Academically, Jha has worked on the development of Marxist aesthetics in Hindi literature, exploring how aesthetic and ideological dimensions of this literature reflect and shape societal values. Jha is also a columnist in leading newspapers, magazines, and online sites, broadly writing on issues of education, culture, communalism, violence, and human rights. He has published two books of literary criticism, Sundar Ka Swapna and Sahitya Ka Ekant. (Recorded Remarks)

MODERATOR

Mark FrazierCo-Director, India China Institute; Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research

Mark Frazier is Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research and Co-Director of the India China Institute at The New School (New York City). His research interests include labor and social policy in China, and the politics of citizenship and urban protest in China and India. He is the author of The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth Century Shanghai and Bombay (2019), Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (2010), and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (2002). He has authored op-ed pieces and essays for The New York Times, Daedalus, and The Diplomat. Frazier serves on the editorial board of China Quarterly and is a Faculty Associate at Columbia University's China Center for Social Policy. He received a Fulbright Research award in 2004-05, and has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

Kellee TsaiDean and 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.

Day 2

April 25th 2025, Friday10:00AM – 12:00PM

Panel 2: De-globalization and a New International Political Economy

The Chinese government's emphasis on reducing dependency on foreign technology and fostering homegrown innovation reflects a broader strategy to consolidate its economic sovereignty and global influence. India's economic nationalism is characterized by initiatives such as "Make in India" that aim to boost domestic manufacturing, reduce import dependence, and enhance the competitiveness of Indian industries. The United States has seen a shift towards protectionism and policies to prioritize American industries and workers. This includes renegotiation of trade deals, imposition of tariffs, and initiatives to revive domestic manufacturing.

This panel considers the rise and return of economic nationalism and industrial policy in India, China, and the United States, the emergence of regional blocs, and the ensuing implications for technology sectors, manufacturing, and the global economy.

Ravi KanburT.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, Cornell University

Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs at Cornell University. He previously taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Princeton University, and Columbia University, among others. He has held several senior staff positions at the World Bank, including Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. Kanbur has also served as Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission, Chair of the Board of United Nations University–World Institute for Development Economics Research, President of the Human Development and Capability Association, and President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. He holds a PhD from Oxford University. Kanbur's research is focused on public economics, development economics, and economic theory. His publications have covered topics of inequality, poverty, structural adjustment, agriculture, urbanization, and labor, among others. He is well known in the field of international development, not just for his ample academic work, but for his public engagement and policy analysis. Kanbur has published in leading economic journals, including Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, and American Economic Review. He is also a co-editor of the recent books International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects, and Climate Justice: Integrating Economics and Philosophy.

William MilbergProfessor of Economics, The New School for Social Research

William Milberg is Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. His research focuses on the relation between globalization and income distribution, and the history and philosophy of economics. He has written extensively on global value chains and their implications for economic development, financialization and intellectual property. His recent work focuses on the economic causes and consequences of the multinational retreat from liberal democracy, including an edited issue of Social Research and a book published by The New Institute. His current book project is on the relation between globalization and sports. Milberg has worked as a consultant to the UNDP, the ILO, the UNCTAD and the World Bank. He is the author of Outsourcing Economics: Global Value Chains in Capitalist Development (with Deborah Winkler). Two previous books, The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economic Thought and The Making of Economic Society were co-authored with the late Robert Heilbroner. He serves on the editorial boards of Politics & Society, The Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, The International Review of Applied Economics and is on the Advisory Board of Socio-Economic Review. Milberg served as Dean of the New School for Social Research from 2013-2023.

Min YEProfessor 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.

MODERATOR

Manjari MahajanCo-Director, India China Institute; Associate Professor, Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, Schools of Public Engagement

Manjari Mahajan's work lies at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Development Studies, and Anthropology. Her research and teaching are on the topics of global health, philanthrocapitalism, and digital governance. Much of her empirical focus has been on India and South Africa, and more recently, on global organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. She has held fellowships at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany, and the Social Science Research Council in the United States. Her papers have received prizes from the Society for Social Studies for Science and the American Anthropological Association. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, her MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU Sussex University, and her BA from Harvard University.

Day 2
April 25th 2025, Friday1:30PM – 3:30PM
Panel 3: Contesting History and Memory
The Chinese government's emphasis on reducing dependency on foreign technology and fostering homegrown innovation reflects a broader strategy to consolidate its economic sovereignty and global influence. India's economic nationalism is characterized by initiatives such as "Make in India" that aim to boost domestic manufacturing, reduce import dependence, and enhance the competitiveness of Indian industries. The United States has seen a shift towards protectionism and policies to prioritize American industries and workers. This includes renegotiation of trade deals, imposition of tariffs, and initiatives to revive domestic manufacturing.
This panel considers the rise and return of economic nationalism and industrial policy in India, China, and the United States, the emergence of regional blocs, and the ensuing implications for technology sectors, manufacturing, and the global economy.

Jane BurbankProfessor Emerita of History and Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University

Jane Burbank is Professor Emerita of History and Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. She has taught at NYU since 2002 and is active in the university's initiatives in Russian, Eurasian, and global history. She is a member of NYU's Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. Before joining NYU, she held faculty positions at Harvard University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan. She directed UM's Center for Russian and East European Studies for several years in the 1990s. She now spends part of each year in Paris and is a member of CERCEC (Centre d'études russes, caucasiennes, est-européennes et centrasiatiques) of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. She holds a PhD from Harvard University.Burbank's research spans the fields of Russian, imperial, and legal history. Her work examines the dynamics of empire, law, and governance, particularly in Russian and Soviet contexts. Most recently, she is the co-author, with Frederick Cooper, of Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia, as well as Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. She is the author of Russian Peasants Go to Court: Legal Culture in the Countryside, 1905–1917 and Intelligentsia and Revolution: Russian Views of Bolshevism, 1917–1922, and the co-editor of Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930, and Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire. Burbank is an active participant in international academic networks and projects on empire and legal history. With Frederick Cooper, she received the Toynbee Prize for the study of global history in 2023.

Prasenjit DuaraOscar 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.

Manu GoswamiAssociate Professor of History, New York University

Manu Goswami is Associate Professor of History at New York University. She serves on the editorial boards of The American Historical Review, Public Culture, and Critical Historical Studies. Her work has appeared in The American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of Historical Sociology, and Constellations, among other journals. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Goswami's research has focused on the history of capitalism, political economy, nationalism, social theory, and the history of economic thought. More specifically she has examined colonial and post-colonial legacies of economic development in modern India. Her most recent book, Political Imaginaries in Twentieth Century India, was published in 2022, and she is also the author of Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Goswami's research also delves into the broader history of economic thought, analyzing the intersections between political and economic change in South Asia.

Claire PotterProfessor Emerita of History at The New School for Social Research

Claire Potter is Professor Emerita of History at The New School for Social Research, where she previously served as co-executive Editor of Public Seminar, a digital platform for intellectual and political debate. Before joining The New School, she was part of the faculty at Wesleyan University and held visiting positions at institutions such as Yale University and the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in History from New York University.

Potter's work spans the fields of U.S. political history, gender and sexuality studies, and digital humanities, examining the intersections of media, politics, and social movements in modern America. Her most recent book, Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy, explores the rise of alternative political media in the United States. She is also the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Incarceration in American History. Potter has published work in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Jacobin, and Dissent, and has run several blogs, the current being her Substack Political Junkie. She also on editorial boards for journals such as Feminist Studies and The Journal of American History.

MODERATOR

Jonathan BachProfessor of Global Studies, The New School

Jonathan Bach is Professor of Global Studies at The New School. He is a longtime ICI faculty advisor, a faculty affiliate at ICI. He has also served as the founding Chair of the Global Studies Program and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. Bach held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and Columbia University after receiving his PhD in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He has also held visiting positions at institutions such as Columbia University, Humboldt University in Berlin, and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies in Hamburg.

Bach's work spans the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and politics. His work examines social change following economic, political, and cultural disruption, especially in the post-socialist world. His most recent book is What Remains: Everyday Encounters with the Socialist Past in Germany. Bach was also the co-editor of Re-Centring the City: Urban Mutations, Socialist Afterlives, and the Global East, as well as Learning from Shenzhen: China's Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City. He is actively involved in scholarly communities, serving on editorial boards for journals such as German Politics and Society and Sociologica, as well as a faculty affiliate at Columbia University's Center on Organizational Innovation.

Day 2

April 25th 2025, Friday3:45PM – 5:15PM

Concluding Panel: India and China in the Making of a Post-Liberal World

This session features members of ICI's External Advisory Board who will consider the global disruptions launched by the Trump administration and the demise of the liberal international order. The political trajectories of India and China over the past decade can provide a lens to understand changes under way within the United States, as well as the new norms and institutions of a post-liberal, post-American, post-western world order.

SPEAKERS

Prasenjit DuaraOscar 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. KatzensteinWalter 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 TsaiDean and 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 YEProfessor 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.

The University Under a Global Authoritarian Turn
2025-04-24 17:00 - 19:30
Governments and powerful social actors have both promoted higher education in the service of national power while seeking to place curbs on the teaching, research and political activity of scholars and universities. In 21st century China and India, governments have channeled impressive financial resources into higher education to create world-class research universities. At the same time, they have imposed new restrictions on the curriculum and restricted engagement with sensitive topics, including in some instances eliminating entire disciplinary programs. How broader political discourses and tensions in Indian and Chinese politics play out within their universities make for analogues – but also contrasts – to what is found in the United States. How can universities in our contemporary era produce innovation, new forms of knowledge, and a new generation of thinkers needed to address multiple global crises? This panel will address the contradictions of academic prestige and academic freedom in contemporary India, China, and also the United States, and consider the challenges of international academic exchanges in the current environment.

OPENING REMARKS

Joel TowersUniversity President and University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design, The New School

Joel Towers is the President of The New School and University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design. He has been at The New School for over 20 years, serving previously as the executive dean of the Parsons School of Design. As an architect, Towers has worked on projects that champion environmentally sustainable and socially responsible design. Towers has also played a key role in shaping New York City’s climate resilience strategy, co-chairing the New York City Panel on Climate Change. He earned a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.
Towers’ academic work focuses on the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and sustainability, with an emphasis on how design solutions can address global environmental challenges. He is particularly interested in the role of architecture in mitigating climate change, designing energy-efficient and socially inclusive urban spaces, and fostering resilience in cities. Towers has published extensively on sustainable design practices, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that integrates ecological, economic, and social considerations. His work at The New School has led to the creation of innovative programs that combine design thinking with policy and social justice, preparing students to lead in an era of rapid environmental and social transformation.

Manjari MahajanCo-Director, India China Institute; Associate Professor, Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, Schools of Public Engagement

Manjari Mahajan’s work lies at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Development Studies, and Anthropology. Her research and teaching are on the topics of global health, philanthrocapitalism, and digital governance. Much of her empirical focus has been on India and South Africa, and more recently, on global organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. She has held fellowships at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany, and the Social Science Research Council in the United States. Her papers have received prizes from the Society for Social Studies for Science and the American Anthropological Association. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, her MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU Sussex University, and her BA from Harvard University.

SPEAKERS

Craig Calhoun Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University

Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Prior to this position, he taught at Columbia University, New York University, where he founded the Institute for Public Knowledge, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School and directed the University Center for International Studies. He has also served as president of the London School of Economics, the Social Science Research Council, and the Berggruen Institute. He holds a PhD from Oxford University.

Calhoun has wide-ranging research interests, including critical global issues such as the future of democracy, the impact of technology on work and society, global political economy, and nationalism and social movements. Most recently, he is the co-author of Degenerations of Democracy and co-editor of The Green New Deal and the Future of Work. He is also the author of Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China. Beyond academia, he is deeply involved in public service, sitting on advisory boards for organizations like the MasterCard Foundation and Reset Dialogues.

Apoorvanand Jha (Recorded Remarks)Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi

Apoorvanand Jha is Professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi. He has taught previously at Magadh University and Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University. He earned his Masters and PhD from Patna University. Jha was part of the core group that designed the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in 2005 and was a member of the national Focus Group on Teaching of Indian Languages formed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training.

Academically, Jha has worked on the development of Marxist aesthetics in Hindi literature, exploring how aesthetic and ideological dimensions of this literature reflect and shape societal values. Jha is also a columnist in leading newspapers, magazines, and online sites, broadly writing on issues of education, culture, communalism, violence, and human rights. He has published two books of literary criticism, Sundar Ka Swapna and Sahitya Ka Ekant.

Kellee TsaiDean and 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.

MODERATOR

Mark FrazierCo-Director, India China Institute; Professor of Politics, The New School for Social Research

Mark Frazier is Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research and Co-Director of the India China Institute at The New School (New York City). His research interests include labor and social policy in China, and the politics of citizenship and urban protest in China and India. He is the author of The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth Century Shanghai and Bombay (2019), Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (2010), and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (2002). He has authored op-ed pieces and essays for The New York Times, Daedalus, and The Diplomat. Frazier serves on the editorial board of China Quarterly and is a Faculty Associate at Columbia University’s China Center for Social Policy. He received a Fulbright Research award in 2004-05, and has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

De-globalization and a New International Political Economy
2025-04-25 10:00 - 12:00
The Chinese government’s emphasis on reducing dependency on foreign technology and fostering homegrown innovation reflects a broader strategy to consolidate its economic sovereignty and global influence. India’s economic nationalism is characterized by initiatives such as “Make in India” that aim to boost domestic manufacturing, reduce import dependence, and enhance the competitiveness of Indian industries. The United States has seen a shift towards protectionism and policies to prioritize American industries and workers. This includes renegotiation of trade deals, imposition of tariffs, and initiatives to revive domestic manufacturing. This panel considers the rise and return of economic nationalism and industrial policy in India, China, and the United States, the emergence of regional blocs, and the ensuing implications for technology sectors, manufacturing, and the global economy.
SPEAKERS

Ravi KanburT.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, Cornell University

Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs at Cornell University. He previously taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Princeton University, and Columbia University, among others. He has held several senior staff positions at the World Bank, including Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. Kanbur has also served as Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission, Chair of the Board of United Nations University–World Institute for Development Economics Research, President of the Human Development and Capability Association, and President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. He holds a PhD from Oxford University. Kanbur’s research is focused on public economics, development economics, and economic theory. His publications have covered topics of inequality, poverty, structural adjustment, agriculture, urbanization, and labor, among others. He is well known in the field of international development, not just for his ample academic work, but for his public engagement and policy analysis. Kanbur has published in leading economic journals, including Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, and American Economic Review. He is also a co-editor of the recent books International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects, and Climate Justice: Integrating Economics and Philosophy.

William MilbergProfessor of Economics, The New School for Social Research

William Milberg is Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. His research focuses on the relation between globalization and income distribution, and the history and philosophy of economics. He has written extensively on global value chains and their implications for economic development, financialization and intellectual property. His recent work focuses on the economic causes and consequences of the multinational retreat from liberal democracy, including an edited issue of Social Research and a book published by The New Institute. His current book project is on the relation between globalization and sports. Milberg has worked as a consultant to the UNDP, the ILO, the UNCTAD and the World Bank. He is the author of Outsourcing Economics: Global Value Chains in Capitalist Development (with Deborah Winkler). Two previous books, The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economic Thought and The Making of Economic Society were co-authored with the late Robert Heilbroner. He serves on the editorial boards of Politics & Society, The Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, The International Review of Applied Economics and is on the Advisory Board of Socio-Economic Review. Milberg served as Dean of the New School for Social Research from 2013-2023.

Min YEProfessor 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.

MODERATOR

Manjari MahajanCo-Director, India China Institute; Associate Professor, Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs, Schools of Public Engagement

Manjari Mahajan’s work lies at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Development Studies, and Anthropology. Her research and teaching are on the topics of global health, philanthrocapitalism, and digital governance. Much of her empirical focus has been on India and South Africa, and more recently, on global organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. She has held fellowships at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany, and the Social Science Research Council in the United States. Her papers have received prizes from the Society for Social Studies for Science and the American Anthropological Association. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, her MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU Sussex University, and her BA from Harvard University.

Contesting History and Memory
2025-04-25 13:30 - 15:30
Remembrance of the past, inscribed in textbooks, museums and monuments, has in large part always been a political act. In our contemporary world, states and social forces have increasingly challenged established historical narratives by making appeals to identity and grievance. This panel engages in questions of contested memory and remembrance in 21st century India, China and the US, including historical events that have been subject to reinterpretation and censorship, the legacies of colonialism and its impacts on collective memory, and the reframing of history and heritage in schools and museums to transmit new forms of collective memory.

SPEAKERS

Jane BurbankProfessor Emerita of History and Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University

Jane Burbank is Professor Emerita of History and Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. She has taught at NYU since 2002 and is active in the university’s initiatives in Russian, Eurasian, and global history. She is a member of NYU’s Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. Before joining NYU, she held faculty positions at Harvard University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan. She directed UM’s Center for Russian and East European Studies for several years in the 1990s. She now spends part of each year in Paris and is a member of CERCEC (Centre d’études russes, caucasiennes, est-européennes et centrasiatiques) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. She holds a PhD from Harvard University.

Burbank’s research spans the fields of Russian, imperial, and legal history. Her work examines the dynamics of empire, law, and governance, particularly in Russian and Soviet contexts. Most recently, she is the co-author, with Frederick Cooper, of Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia, as well as Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. She is the author of Russian Peasants Go to Court: Legal Culture in the Countryside, 1905–1917 and Intelligentsia and Revolution: Russian Views of Bolshevism, 1917–1922, and the co-editor of Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700–1930 and Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire. Burbank is an active participant in international academic networks and projects on empire and legal history. With Frederick Cooper, she received the Toynbee Prize for the study of global history in 2023.

Prasenjit DuaraOscar 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.

Manu GoswamiAssociate Professor of History, New York University

Manu Goswami is Associate Professor of History at New York University. She serves on the editorial boards of The American Historical Review, Public Culture, and Critical Historical Studies. Her work has appeared in The American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of Historical Sociology, and Constellations, among other journals. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
Goswami’s research has focused on the history of capitalism, political economy, nationalism, social theory, and the history of economic thought. More specifically she has examined colonial and post-colonial legacies of economic development in modern India. Her most recent book, Political Imaginaries in Twentieth Century India, was published in 2022, and she is also the author of Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Goswami’s research also delves into the broader history of economic thought, analyzing the intersections between political and economic change in South Asia.

Claire PotterProfessor Emerita of History at The New School for Social Research

Claire Potter is Professor Emerita of History at The New School for Social Research, where she previously served as co-executive Editor of Public Seminar, a digital platform for intellectual and political debate. Before joining The New School, she was part of the faculty at Wesleyan University and held visiting positions at institutions such as Yale University and the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in History from New York University.

Potter’s work spans the fields of U.S. political history, gender and sexuality studies, and digital humanities, examining the intersections of media, politics, and social movements in modern America. Her most recent book, Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy, explores the rise of alternative political media in the United States. She is also the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Incarceration in American History. Potter has published work in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Jacobin, and Dissent, and has run several blogs, the current being her Substack Political Junkie. She also on editorial boards for journals such as Feminist Studies and The Journal of American History.

MODERATOR

Jonathan BachProfessor of Global Studies, The New School

Jonathan Bach is Professor of Global Studies at The New School. He is a longtime ICI faculty advisor, a faculty affiliate at ICI. He has also served as the founding Chair of the Global Studies Program and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. Bach held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and Columbia University after receiving his PhD in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He has also held visiting positions at institutions such as Columbia University, Humboldt University in Berlin, and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies in Hamburg.

Bach’s work spans the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and politics. His work examines social change following economic, political, and cultural disruption, especially in the post-socialist world. His most recent book is What Remains: Everyday Encounters with the Socialist Past in Germany. Bach was also the co-editor of Re-Centring the City: Urban Mutations, Socialist Afterlives, and the Global East, as well as Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City. He is actively involved in scholarly communities, serving on editorial boards for journals such as German Politics and Society and Sociologica, as well as a faculty affiliate at Columbia University’s Center on Organizational Innovation.

Concluding Panel: India and China in the Making of a Post Liberal World
2025-04-25 15:45 - 17:15
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
