I am an assistant professor of Political Science and Asian Studies at Temple University. During the 2012-2013 academic year, I am based at U.C. Berkeley, where I have been awarded a Residential Faculty Research Fellowship. I am Visiting Scholar at the Institute of East Asian Studies and Boalt School of Law's Center for the Study of Law & Society.
Prior to arriving at Temple, I served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center for International Studies. I was also affiliated with the U.S.-China Institute. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley in 2008; and as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, I conducted research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics between 2005 and 2006.
I am the author of China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Cornell University Press / Cornell Studies in Political Economy, 2011), a cross-industry examination of China’s distinctive integration into the international economy. My dissertation, on which this book is based, was nominated by the U.C. Berkeley Department of Political Science for the Gabriel Almond Award for Best Dissertation at the American Political Science Association.
My current research include a comparative project examining the politics of market reform in China, India, and Russia in the post-liberalization era; a project on China’s foreign economic engagement and its political impact on the developing world; and an investigation of emerging capitalism and the social ramifications of economic control in China. I have an article in Comparative Political Studies (January 2012), comparing China and India; and I have published work on the impact of domestic ideas and politics on free trade arrangements between small and large countries, focusing analysis on Taiwan’s attempts at negotiating bilateral trade agreements. I have also conducted research on comparative democratization and authoritarianism.
When not doing research or teaching, I enjoy traveling around the world with my family, running on city streets, hiking in neighborhood hills, browsing bookstores, writing poetry, and cooking gourmet cuisine to satisfy my culinary curiosity.