Friday, August 22, 1.00 PM-4:00 PM
Venue: AB 1087 (Refreshments will be provided!)
The event is organized by the Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the Division of Social Sciences at Duke Kunshan University
Agenda
1.00pm – 1.15pm: Introduction of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, Prof. Annemieke van den Dool, Co-Director
1.15pm – 1.30pm: Introduction of the Division of Social Sciences, Prof. Gergely Horvath, Chair
1.30pm – 2.00pm: Doing Social Science with Big Data and Computational Methods, Prof. Fan Liang
2.00pm – 2.30pm: Doing Social Science with Fieldwork, Prof. Hyun Jeong Ha
2.30pm – 2.45pm: Coffee break
2.45pm – 3.15pm: Doing Social Science with Surveys, Prof. Jason Todd
3.15pm – 3.45pm: Doing Social Science with Experimental Methods, Prof. Gergely Horvath
3.45pm – 4.00pm: Q&A
The orientation will introduce the academic and social activities of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the Division of Social Sciences to the students interested in social sciences. These include research seminars, conferences, research and funding opportunities, labs and other social activities. In addition, there will be a series of short lectures by DKU professors that will introduce typical methods of inquiry for social science research and their applications to interesting research questions in anthropology, behavioral science, economics, political science, sociology, etc. These will allow students to form an idea what social sciences are all about. All DKU students who have interests in the social sciences are welcome to attend. There will be ample opportunities to talk to the professors and learn about their research projects. Light refreshments will be provided!
RSVP: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cC20Zd792pRpt6S
FACULTY
Prof. Annemieke van den Dool
Annemieke Van Den Dool is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and co-director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at Duke Kunshan University. Her research looks at how public policy is made and implemented in China—especially how different people and groups influence decisions, what causes policies to change, and what the policies actually say and do—for example, whether they are feasible, strict, and predictable. Her research topics include antibiotic use, infectious diseases, soil pollution, community gardening, and bicycling. Her work has been financially supported by the World Health Organization, the Kunshan Government, and the Harvard-Yenching Institute. In 2024, she received a major research award from the American Political Science Association for her writing. Her research has been published in leading journals like Policy Studies Journal and Policy & Politics. At DKU, she teaches public policy courses.
Prof. Hyun Jeong Ha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke Kunshan University. Her research interests include power, religion, sectarianism, and gender in the Middle East. She has written about Muslim-Christian relations in contemporary Egypt, and her current research examines how the 2011 Egyptian Arab Uprisings have affected the sectarian relations from an intersectional approach, or the consideration of class, gender, and geography. Trained as an ethnographer, she has conducted field research in Cairo, Egypt, from 2006. Her work has appeared in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Peace Research, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Changes, and Contexts, among others. She teaches courses on sociological theories, social problems, and religion and politics in the Middle East.
Prof. Fan Liang is an Assistant professor of Media at Duke Kunshan University. His research and teaching explore how new communication technologies construct social and political changes, and how social and political powers shape and regulate the design and operation of such technologies. His research has received recognition and support from British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Volkswagen Foundation, International Communication Association, and other institutions. His studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Policy & Internet, Social Media + Society, International Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Communication Research, and Journal of Communication. Liang has a B.A. in public administration from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, an M.Sc. in political communication from the University of Glasgow, and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Michigan. Before entering academia, he was a journalist in Chengdu, China.
Prof. Jason Douglas Todd is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Global Elections Lab at Duke Kunshan University, where he has taught since obtaining his PhD from Duke University in 2020. His research examines elections, responsiveness, and representation in democratic and authoritarian legislatures. Work published in the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, and Political Behavior has investigated North Carolina’s county commissions, the U.S. Congress, and the Vietnamese National Assembly. Work in progress tackles American state legislatures, local Chinese People’s Congresses, Russian regional assemblies, and elections to over a dozen other deliberative bodies around the world. A lifelong Tarheel, Jason grew up in the foothills of western North Carolina, later attending the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and earning a B.A. in international studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He speaks Mandarin, loves reading to his two children, and drinks too much coffee.
Prof. Gergely Horvath is an Associate Professor of Economics and Chair of the Social Sciences Division at Duke Kunshan University. His research focuses on experimental and behavioral economics, social network analysis, labor economics, applied microeconomics, and agent-based modelling. He has done research on diverse topics including the impact of social networks on job finding and labor market outcomes, the competition for social status in networks, discrimination in the labor market, entrepreneurship among ethnic minorities, whistleblowing in organizations, bank runs, and the evolution of cooperation. His has articles have appeared in academic journals including the European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Economics Letters, Journal of Theoretical Biology, B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, and PLOS ONE. His research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.