Dali L. Yang is the William Claude Reavis Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College and Senior Advisor to the President and the Provost on Global Initiatives at the University of Chicago. Yang’s research is on the politics of China’s development, governance, and global impact. He has in recent years written extensively on China and the Covid-19 pandemic and is the author of a forthcoming book on China’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan (Oxford University Press). His other research interests include China’s regulation, environmental governance, social and political trust, and state-society relations. Through collaborative research, he also continues his long-standing interest in the political economy of the Great Leap Famine (1959-1961).
Among Yang’s books are China and Youth Well-being in China (co-author; Routledge, 2019); Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China (Stanford University Press, 2004); Calamity and Reform in China: State, Rural Society and Institutional Change since the Great Leap Famine (Stanford University Press, 1996); and Beyond Beijing: Liberalization and the Regions in China (Routledge, 1997). He is also editor or co-editor of several other volumes, including The Global Recession and China’s Political Economy (Palgrave, 2012). His recent articles have appeared in Comparative Political Studies, International Political Science Review, Journal of Contemporary China, and Political Studies.
Professor Yang served in a number of other academic leadership roles. Between 2010 and June 2016, he was the founding Faculty Director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing, a university-wide initiative to promote collaboration and exchange between UChicago scholars and students and their Chinese counterparts. He also served as Chairman of the Political Science Department, Director of the Center for East Asian Studies, and Director of the Committee on International Relations of the University of Chicago. He also previously served as Director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore and Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Chicago.