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Chinese
Program |
 Faculty
Profile: Calvin Chen
Luce Assistant Professor of Politics
"By looking at the stories and activities of ordinary citizens,
students will not only better understand the broader world in which
we live, but more importantly, learn something about themselves, their
own priorities and values. What animates my teaching is the possibility
of examining and sharing diverse ideas and experiences, ones that reflect
more enduring truths. I hope self-reflection remains a central part
of students' lives outside the classroom and beyond Mount Holyoke College."
Contact:
Skinner Hall, Room 108
413-538-2668
cchen@mtholyoke.edu
Joined MHC: 2002
Education:
- University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., M.A., B.A.
Specialization: Political economy of East Asia; Chinese
politics; comparative politics; work and labor politics; rural economic
development; public administration.
An expert in the political economy of East Asia, Calvin Chen doesn't
limit himself to studying famous politicians and formal political institutions.
He researches the ordinary lives of the working people of China, Japan,
Taiwan, and Korea and discovers extraordinary day-to-day endeavors that
ultimately shape a nation economically and politically.
In the 1990s, for example, Chen lived and labored alongside Chinese workers
in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, seeking to understand how former
farmers in two townships had made such a success of collective and private
manufacturing enterprises. He found a family-style structure of relationships
built on trust and support, a structure that led to cooperation, productivity,
and reward for all involved. The successful structure reminds us of the
great power of ordinary people and their grassroots ideas, says Chen.
Chen has won numerous grants and scholarships for his research, which
has included work in China and Taiwan, as well as a study of communism
in East Europe and Russia in the post-cold war era. His writings include
a coauthored manuscript, "Labor Politics in Post-Socialist Russia
and China: Belated Convergence or Divergent Transformations?," and
a book manuscript, Economic Reform, Local Networks, and the Politics of
Production in Contemporary China. Chen's comparative historical courses,
such as East Asian Politics and Politics of Work, contribute to a broad,
integrated politics curriculum and an effective major in Asian studies.
Web Resources:
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