Description

Duke University, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, requests the Foundation’s support for two conferences to bring senior scholars into conversation with their junior colleagues and graduate students around issues of concern in the study of Chinese politics.  The idea for these convenings grew out of discussions among five leading political scientists who work on China: Elizabeth Perry (Harvard), Jean Oi (Stanford), Mary Gallagher (Michigan), Melanie Manion (Duke) and Lily Tsai (MIT).  They formed a working group on Chinese politics and organized workshops at Harvard (2017) and Stanford (2018) to examine the state of the field.  The conferences proposed here will take up topics identified for special attention, with a primary focus on building capacity within the new generation of Chinese politics scholars.
            The 2019 conference at Duke will take as its theme China as a global power.  Scholars of domestic Chinese politics will join those working in international relations and international political economy.  The objective is to foster dialogue between these two scholarly communities on a common set of questions relevant to topics such as domestic sources of foreign policy, cybersecurity and surveillance, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the international implications of territorial claims such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.  Non-China specialists will be invited to provide outside perspectives on how the study of Chinese politics can contribute to and shape the wider fields of political science and public policy.
Research practices and methodology will be the focal point of the 2020 conference at the University of Michigan.  Topics covered under this rubric include the challenges of collaboration and human subject protection; use of new data sources, such as online data; new modes of research; and public outreach and policy relevance of research findings.  The agenda will include discussion of current challenges of conducting fieldwork in China.
The conferences will generate products for research and training that reach beyond the meetings themselves.  Publication of an edited volume or special issue of a journal is planned in each case.  The Duke conference will also compile a comprehensive bibliography on “China and the World” and Michigan will produce a set of best practices for fieldwork and research on China.
These two meetings are part of the working group’s efforts to build a stronger research community of scholars spanning generations and a broad spectrum of expertise.  At a time when U.S.-China relations have entered new and turbulent territory, the organizers write, the need for such a community to “get China right” through rigorous and engaged scholarship is imperative.  The momentum generated, they hope, will lead to ideas for future initiatives and the formation of a new division on Chinese politics in the American Political Science Association.
Our grant will help cover travel, accommodation, meals and local transportation for approximately 50 participants per conference.
Recommendation:                                That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a two-year grant of $105,000 to Duke University to support a pair of conferences on Chinese politics.