Jing CHEN

Welcome to my website! (Google scholar profile)

I am a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science at Hartwick College. Previously I was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Eckerd College. 

I earned my doctoral degree from Princeton University and my bachelor's degree from Peking University. I received two-year formal training and one-year private tutoring of the Japanese language. I served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Chinese Political Studies (2018-2022). 

My teaching and research interests include comparative politics and international relations in Pacific Asia, UN peacekeeping, Authoritarianism, environmental politics, and politics in developing countries. In addition to classroom teaching, I also led students to study abroad in China examining environmental issues funded by the Luce Foundation and took students to Chinatown in New York City exploring Asian-American culture and identities.

My book, Useful Complaints: How Petitions Assist Decentralized Authoritarianism in China, argues that China's central government uses information garnered from petitions to hold local officials accountable, improve the policy making process and maintain stability despite the potentially destabilizing effects of China’s high level of decentralization and rapid economic development. 

My research has also appeared in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals such as Asian Perspective, ASIANetwork Exchange, China Information,  Journal of Contemporary China (2), and Journal of Chinese Political Science (2).