Dates: Friday - Saturday, October 2 and 3, 2026
Location: IEAS Conference Room, UC Berkeley
Sponsors: Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley;
Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley;
Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
Introduction
The inaugural Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies Social Sciences Graduate Research Conference brings together current graduate students from across California to present innovative research on any aspect of China-centered or China-related academic research in the social sciences disciplines. The conference provides a window into current research in China studies, and serves as a platform for fostering interaction among up-and-coming Californian scholars, facilitating their exchange of ideas and interests. Senior scholars will be invited to serve as panel chairs and discussants. The conference hopes to facilitate conversations across disciplines and articulate emerging research questions.
Currently enrolled Ph.D. students and doctoral candidates from the University of California system, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California in all fields of social sciences are invited to submit paper proposals for the Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies Social Sciences Graduate Research Conference, to be held Friday and Saturday, October 2-3, 2026 at UC Berkeley.
Steering Committee:
Puck Engman, Assistant Professor, Department of History, UC Berkeley
Yan Long, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley
Xiaobo Lü, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
Rachel Stern, Professor of Law and Political Science, UC Berkeley
Wen-hsin Yeh, Richard H. and Laurie C. Morrison Chair Professor & Distinguished Professor of History, UC Berkeley
Student Organizer:
Rijuta Vallishayee, PhD student, Department of History, UC Berkeley
Call For Proposals
Currently enrolled Ph.D. students and doctoral candidates from the University of California system, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California in all fields of social sciences are invited to submit paper proposals for the Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies Social Sciences Graduate Research Conference, to be held Friday and Saturday, October 2-3, 2026 at UC Berkeley. Conference registration is free. Presenters will be provided with shared lodging (if needed), Friday dinner, and Saturday breakfast and lunch. UC applicants are encouraged to check with UCHRI for intra-campus funding support. There is limited partial funding assistance for those who cannot find their own funding.
Proposals/bios due: Friday, March 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PT.
Late and incomplete applications will NOT be considered. Those whose papers have already been accepted to the 2026 Berkeley-Stanford Graduate Student Conference in Modern Chinese Humanities should refrain from submitting their abstract to the 2026 Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies Social Sciences Graduate Research Conference
Application Instructions:
To apply, please submit your abstract (up to 400 words) and a short bio (up to 100 words, including current institutional affiliation & name of major adviser), and include the following information in the application: Author Name, Author Bio, Paper Title, Subtitle (optional), Keywords, and Abstract. A competitive proposal usually includes information about methodology, sources of information, and claims of contribution. Social science disciplines include (but are not necessarily limited to): Anthropology, Demography, Economics, Geography, History, Law/Legal Studies, Linguistics, Natural Resources, Political Science, Psychology, Public Policy, and Sociology.
Please follow the link to apply: https://forms.gle/PBLe2KYgjmcQBrag8
The inaugural Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies Social Sciences Graduate Research Conference brings together current graduate students from across California to present innovative research on any aspect of China-centered or China-related academic research in the social sciences disciplines. The conference provides a window into current research in China studies, and serves as a platform for fostering interaction among up-and-coming Californian scholars, facilitating their exchange of ideas and interests. Senior scholars will be invited to serve as panel chairs and discussants. The conference hopes to facilitate conversations across disciplines and articulate emerging research questions.
Notification of acceptance: Late April 2026 Final paper submission deadline (if accepted): Friday September 4, 2026, 11:59 pm PT
Contact Information: UC Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies, ccs@berkeley.edu
Conference Program
Day One: Friday, October 2
8:30am | Coffee and Light Breakfast
8:50am | Welcome and Opening Remarks
Sophie Volpp, CCS Faculty Chair; East Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
9:00 - 10:45am | Panel I: Governance
Chair: Xiaobo Lü, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Daniel Spinelli, USC
Can China Build “First-Class” Majors at Its Top Universities? A Preliminary Study
Qianmin Hu, Stanford University
Turning the Tables: How China’s Industrial Upgrading Reverses State-Business Relations
Hu Hsu, UC Berkeley
Returning to the Local Pantheon: The Cult of the Neo-Confucian Scholar Wang Yangming in Contemporary China
Haojie Liu, UC Riverside
Policy Gains or Household Need? The Allocation Logic of China’s Dibao Program
Discussants:
Xiaobo Lü, Political Science, UC Berkeley (8 minutes)
Peter Lorentzen, Economics, University of San Francisco (8 minutes)
Q&A: 30 minutes
10:45 - 11:00am | Break
11:00 - 12:45pm | Panel II: Information and Media
Chair: Jennifer Pan, Political Science, Stanford University
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Yunpeng Chen, UCSD
Surveying like a State: Society-Driven Legibility-Making in Early Twentieth Century China
Fan Fu, UCSD
From Private Wealth to Public Worth: How State Media Legitimize Business Elites in China
Rijuta Vallishayee, UC Berkeley
“Chinese Censorship” In the Nanjing Decade: Governing Information Flow in Shanghai, 1927-1937
Matt DeButts, Stanford University
Media Patronage: Selection and Survival to Shape Foreign Media
Discussants:
Jennifer Pan, Political Science, Stanford University (8 minutes)
Xiaoling Shu, Sociology, UC Davis (8 minutes)
Q&A: 30 minutes
12:45 - 1:45pm | Lunch Break
1:45 - 3:30pm | Panel III: Urban/Grassroots Institutions
Chair: Yan Long, Sociology, UC Berkeley
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Zhaorui Lu, UC Irvine
Activist Aunties: Gendering Neighborhood Work and Grassroots State-building in Urban China, 1949-1957
Yinuo Ding, UC Irvine
Governance and Grassroots Action: Civic Engagement Under Lockdown in Wuhan and Shanghai
Shuyue Chen and Anqi Yu, UC Berkeley
Staging, Performing, and Hierarchizing: The Intellectual Style in Chengdu’s Bookstores
Yingru Chen, UC Davis
Generating One’s Own Blood: Infrastructural Fragility and Experimental Futures of Aging in China
Discussants:
Yan Long, Sociology, UC Berkeley (8 minutes)
Kevin O’Brien, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, UC Berkeley (8 minutes)
Q & A: 30 minutes
3:30 - 3:45pm | Break
3:45 - 5:30pm | Panel IV: Regulation and Legal Institutions
Chair: Rachel Stern, UC Berkeley Law
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Victoria Chuxuan Liu, Stanford University
“License-Out”: How Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies Sustained Innovation under Cost Containment Reform
Yilin Zhu, UCSD
Governing through Category Ambiguity: The Making and Remaking of Regulatory Boundaries in China’s Internet Finance
Siyuan Fan, UCSD
Manufacturing Obedience: Entertainment Media and Authoritarian Support
Sihan Mao, USC
Property Rights and the Judicial Independence Reform: The Role of Courts in Land Takings and Planning Disputes
Discussants:
Rachel Stern, UC Berkeley Law (8 minutes)
Talha Syed, UC Berkeley Law (8 minutes)
Q&A: 30 minutes
Day 2: Saturday, October 3
8:30am | Coffee and Light Breakfast
9:00-10:30am | Panel V: Marriage and Family
Chair: Matthew Sommer, History, Stanford University
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Haiyi Zheng, UCLA
Anticipating Marriage as a Trap: Fear and the Reorientation of Unmarried Women’s Futures in Pro-natalist China
Lan Wang, UC Santa Barbara
Homeland Echoes: The Persistent Grip of Origin Identity
Olivia Maddox, UCSD
Lessons in “Socialist Love”: The Strains of Socialist Construction on Marital Relationships in the Early Mao Era
Discussants:
Matthew Sommer, History, Stanford University (8 minutes)
Thomas Gold, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, UC Berkeley (8 minutes)
Q & A: 30 minutes
10:30 - 10:45am | Break
10:45-12:30pm | Panel VI: Environment and Material Worlds
Chair: Puck Engman, History, UC Berkeley
Presenters (15 minutes each):
Ian Dubrowsky, UCSD
Militarized by Design, Modernized Without Rupture: The Daqing Oilfield and the Military-Industrial Labor Regime
Kelly Fu, Stanford University
Plastic Without Petrochemicals
Mason Smith, UCLA
Imported Meat and Pastoral Marketization in Northwest China
Hong Song, Stanford University
The Insect Matters: Environment, Labor, and Trade in Southwest Sichuan
Discussants:
Puck Engman, History, UC Berkeley (8 minutes)
Joseph Esherick, Professor Emeritus of History, UCSD (8 minutes)
Q&A: 30 minutes
12:30pm | Wrap-up: Group Photo
12:30-1:30pm | Lunch
Directions
The IEAS Conference Room is located on the fifth floor of 2111 Bancroft Way. The building is one block from BART and also has a public parking garage which is accessed off Bancroft Way.
Parking
There are various public parking lots and facilities near campus and in downtown Berkeley. More information is available on the UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation page.