Ya-Wen Lei

Bio

Ya-Wen Lei (雷雅雯) is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University and a Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. She was trained in both law and sociology: she holds an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. After graduating from Michigan in 2013, she served as a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University (2013–2016). In academic year 2018–2019, she was a visiting professor at Sciences Po in France.

She is the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton University Press, 2018) and The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (Princeton University Press, 2023). Her articles have appeared in general sociological journals (Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Socius), specialized social science journals (Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Law and Society Review, Work, Employment and Society, and Political Communication), and area studies journals (The China Quarterly). Her research has received numerous awards and honors from multiple sections of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, the Law and Society Association, the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, the American Academy in Berlin, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science and Technology in East Asia Fellowship, and Harvard University, among other organizations.

Research Interests: Political economy, political sociology, economic sociology, sociology of work and labor, science and technology studies, law and society, sociology of media and information technologies, development, and Chinese studies.

Selected Publications

Books

• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2023. The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Chinese translation, published by National Taiwan University Press, 2025
  • 2025 Alice Amsden Award, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE)
  • Bronze medal, 2024 Axiom Business Book Award, International Business/Globalization category
  • 2024 Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section, American Sociological Association, Honorable Mention
  • 2024 Asia/Transnational Book Award, Asia and Asian America Section, American Sociological Association
  • 2024 Best Book Award, Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Section, American Sociological Association
  • 2024 Robert K. Merton Book Award, Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section, American Sociological Association
  • 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles in Global Economics, American Library Association
  • 2024 Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2018. The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • 2018 Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Law Section, American Sociological Association
  • 2018 Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award, Human Rights Section, American Sociological Association

Recent Articles and Chapters

• Lei, Ya-Wen and Lin, Ching-Fu. 2026. “Co-Producing Surveillance: Technology, Law, and State-Society Relations in Asia.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 22.
• Lei, Ya-Wen and Kim, Rachel. 2024. “Automation and Augmentation: AI, Robots, and Work.” Annual Review of Sociology 50: 251–72.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2022. “Upgrading China through Automation: Manufacturers, Workers and the Techno-Developmental State.” Work, Employment and Society 36(6): 1078–1096.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2021. “Delivering Solidarity: Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy.” American Sociological Review 86(2): 279–309.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2021. “Publics, Scientists and the State: Mapping the Global Human Genome Editing Controversy.” The China Quarterly 246: 400–427.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2020. “Revisiting China’s Social Volcano: Attitudes toward Inequality and Political Trust in China.” Socius 6: 1–21.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2018. “Social Protest under Hard Authoritarianism.” China Leadership Monitor 58(4): 1–10.
• Hoang, K. K., Cobb, J., and Lei, Y. W. 2017. “Guest Editors’ Introduction: Inter-Asian Capital Circulations, Cultural Transformations, and Methodological Positions.” positions: east asia cultures critique 25(4): 633–644.
• Lei, Ya-Wen. 2016. “Freeing the Press: How Field Environment Explains Critical News Reporting in China.” American Journal of Sociology 122(1): 1–48. Lead Article.
• Lei, Ya-Wen and Zhou, D. Xiaodan. 2015. “Contesting Legality in Authoritarian Contexts: Food Safety, Rule of Law, and China’s Networked Public Sphere.” Law and Society Review 49(3): 557–593. Lead Article.

Media

• Upgrading the Nation: Promise and Peril of Techno-Developmentalism in China, Harvard Kennedy School, 2022