As we approach the end of the summer break and prepare for a new academic year, we reached out to our faculty affiliates and Center Associates to see what they’ve been up to so far in 2025. Unsurprisingly, they’ve been prolific—organizing conferences in Beijing; publishing new books and book translations; and authoring editorials, journal articles, and case studies that enrich their academic field. Several professors also earned prestigious awards and appointments. Below, dive into all the exciting updates they’ve shared with us.
Peter K. Bol, Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
The China Biographical Database Project (CBDB) celebrated its 20th anniversary with a two-day symposium, June 24 and 25, co-sponsored by the Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History, Peking University. (Professor Bol Chairs CBDB’s Executive Committee.)
Also in June, at a ceremony in Beijing, Professor Bol was among 16 recipients presented with this year’s Special Book Awards of China. The award honors “special contributions to promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning between China and other countries.”
Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of History, Harvard University
“Work Points in the People’s Republic of China, 1950s to the 1980s” was published in the March 2025 edition of Isis. It discusses the Work Point system developed to quantify activities throughout rural China during the Mao era.
Professor Ghosh’s upcoming book, The Significance of Small Things: Hydropower and Rural Energy in China, is under contract with Stanford University Press.
Thomas Kelly, Assistant Professor in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Professor Kelly was awarded a Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation scholarship and membership in the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), from January 2025 to July 2025. He worked on his second book project, which examines the literary history of ephemera in early modern China.
William C. Kirby, Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration and T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies; Chair, Harvard China Fund, Harvard University
The paperback edition of Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2025) was published with a new preface.
Columbia University Press published Chinese Encounters with America: Journeys That Shaped the Future of China, featuring a chapter by Professor Kirby entitled “Marjorie Yang Mun Tak 楊梅德: Entrepreneur and Innovator.”
Professor Kirby also published four co-authored Harvard Business School cases: “DJI- Striving for Innovation Amid Contestation“; “COMAC – Chinese Aviation Soars to New Heights”; “Huawei: Resilience Amid Autarky and Adversity”; and “A High-Tech Revolution with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Drive Towards EV Supremacy.”
Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
National Taiwan University Press published a Chinese-language version of Professor Lei’s book, The Gilded Cage: Techno-State Capitalism in China (Princeton University Press, 2023).
Professor Lei was awarded the 2025 Alice Amsden Book Award by The Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) for The Gilded Cage.
In April 2025, Choice named The Gilded Cage one of its Outstanding Academic Titles in Global Economics of the previous year.
Jie Li, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies, Harvard University
Professor Li won the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) for her book, Cinematic Guerrillas: Propaganda, Projectionists, and Audiences in Socialist China (Columbia University Press, 2023)
Professor Li received Honorable Mention for the Joseph Levenson Prize (China, post-1900) for Cinematic Guerrillas from the Association of Asian Studies.
Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard University
Oxford University Press published Sun, Wind, and Biomass: India’s Path to a Sustainable Future, co-authored by Prem Shankar Jha and Professor McElroy. The book offers insights into how another rapidly-developing Asian giant is addressing the decarbonization imperative, complementing Professor McElroy’s decades-long research on China.
Rana Mitter, S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard University
John Hopkins University Press published Lessons from the New Cold War: America Confronts the China Challenge, featuring Professor Mitter’s essay “Competitive Antiliberalism: How Geoeconomics, Security, and Values Define Chinese and American Worldviews in the 2020s and Beyond.”
Robert S. Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston College; Center Associate, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Oxford University Press published Not Just Another Cold War: The Global Implications of the U.S.-China Rivalry, featuring Professor Ross’s chapter “China: Regional Power or Global Superpower?”
“Chinese Coercion, Wedge Strategies, and the U.S.-Philippine Alliance” was published in Volume 34, Issue 153 (2025) of the Journal of Contemporary China.
From May to June, Professor Ross was a Visiting Scholar at Renmin University of China.
Anthony Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, Harvard University
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published The Life of the Party: Past and Present Constraints on the Future of the Chinese Communist Party, featuring Professor Saich’s chapter, “Through the Past Darkly: Culture and Practice of the Chinese Communist Party.” The compendium examining the history of Party politics since the PRC’s founding was co-edited by Isaac Kardon, a Non-Resident Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center. It also features chapters from two other Fairbank Center faculty: Professors Daniel Koss and Meg Rithmire.
Michael A. Szonyi, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University
Xiaofei Tian, Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies, Harvard University
Professor Tian was appointed Ford Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies by Dean Hopi Hoekstra.
Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, Professor of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies; Chair, Committee on Inner Asia and Altaic Studies, Harvard University
“Some Bibliographic Remarks on the Contributions to the Language Arts by Two Early Fifteenth Century Tibetan Writers, Bo dong Paṇ chen and Snar thang Lo tsā ba” was published in the April 2025 edition of Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines.
“Conflicting Chronologies: Did Mar pa Lo tsā ba Chos kyi blo gros Ever Meet Nāropa?” was published in Volume 78, Issue 1 (2025) of Acta Orientalia Hungarica.
Martin K. Whyte, John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Sociology, Emeritus, Harvard University
“Getting Ahead in Today’s China: From Optimism to Pessimism,” an article co-authored by Professor Whyte, Scott Rozelle, and Michael Alisky was published in the January 2025 edition of The China Journal.