The Fairbank Center is pleased to announced the opening of applications for the 2026-27 An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship. These fellowships have historically supported junior scholars in any discipline of Chinese studies. Postdoctoral fellows are chosen through a competitive selection process. An Wang Fellows spend one year at the Fairbank Center working on research for a book manuscript or articles. In addition, they deliver research presentations to the Fairbank Center community and mentor the Center’s graduate student associates.
2026-2027 An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chinese Studies
For academic year 2026-27 the Fairbank Center will offer up to two post-doctoral fellowships to support participants in an interdisciplinary research group to study The Social Foundations of State Power in China. Through this research theme, the group will examine how social structure, inequality, and ideology sustain state capacity and regime durability in contemporary China. Building on recent empirical studies, the group will seek to understand how China’s evolving social stratification, informal institutions, and value changes underpin both the endurance and adaptation of its authoritarian state. With China’s ongoing social transformation—mass education expansion, rural–urban integration, digital governance, and renewed ideological campaigns—this is an opportune moment to build cross-disciplinary frameworks linking social stratification to state durability.
The Fairbank Center will recruit up to two An Wang Postdoctoral Fellows to contribute to this research: a junior scholar working on inequality, mobility, or public opinion in China, and/or a junior scholar focusing on governance, ideology, or compliance. Disciplinary homes may include sociology, political science, economics, communication, history, or area studies. Methodological approaches may include—but are not limited to—causal inference, spatial analysis, computational text analysis, and archival or ethnographic research.
Faculty Mentors
The 2026-27 A Wang research group will be led by professors Yuhua Wang, Ford Foundation Professor of Modern China Studies, Department of Government, and Xiang Zhou, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology. Professor Zhou brings expertise on social stratification, causal inference, and survey data integration. His work on China’s inequality and mobility—spanning analyses of Gini trends, returns to education, and the structure of opportunity—provides the empirical foundation. Professor Wang contributes complementary strengths in political institutions, state formation, and authoritarian governance. His research on the long-run trade-offs between state strength and ruler survival, the infrastructural reach of the modern state, and ideological control in academia frames the project’s political and historical dimensions.
Postdoctoral candidates with relevant research interests are encouraged to apply, and can find more information here. The application deadline is January 15, 2026.