I am the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government (untenured) at Harvard University. My research focuses on two aspects of the politics of state building: 1) What contributes to the emergence of effective and durable statehood? 2) After an effective state emerges, how can it be constrained? My first book Tying the Autocrat’s Hands: The Rise of the Rule of Law in China (Cambridge University Press, 2015) addresses how an authoritarian state can be constrained. I am currently working on a new book "Social Origins of Durable Rule in Imperial China" (under contract at Princeton University Press), which examines how effective statehood emerges and endures. I received my B.A. from Peking University and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. From 2011 to 2015, I was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
This is my CV.