Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor of Politics at Fairfield University. My areas of research and teaching focus on comparative politics with particular interests in state-business relations and Chinese politics.

My book project, “Wealth without Power: The Rise of Chinese Private Business Elites and Their Relationship to the Communist Party” examines how the Chinese Communist Party prevents state capture by incorporating and controlling the rising super-rich in China’s private sector. My research on China is part of a broader investigation into the state-business relationships in transitional regimes and authoritarian resilience.

Before joining Fairfield, I was a post-doctoral fellowship at the Newman US-China Center at the University of Oklahoma in 2022. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Tulane University in 2021. Between 2019-2021, I was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. I hold an M.A. in International Affairs from Pennsylvania State University, and a B.A. in History (minor in Chinese Literature) from Shanghai Normal University. In my leisure time, I enjoy doing traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting.