Biography
Taiyi Sun is an assistant professor of political science at Christopher Newport University of Newport News, Virginia. His research focuses on Chinese politics, disaster and social capital, hydro-politics, and international political economy.
He has previously taught at Boston University and taught courses such as “The Pacific Challenge,” “Readings in Public Policy,” “Introduction to Comparative Politics,” “Public Policy and State-Society Relations,” and “China: from Revolution to Reform” for multiple semesters.
His current research focuses primarily on the development of the public sphere and the accumulation of social capital after disasters, and he has done extensive fieldwork in Sichuan Province, China by repeatedly interviewing government officials, NGO leaders, and local people in 126 villages and several major cities in the region.
He received a Ph.D. in political science from Boston University. Previously, he graduated as the valedictorian from Ripon College, and earned a master degree in international affairs from the School of International Service (SIS), American University Washington, D.C.
He is a regular columnist at multiple Chinese media outlets on U.S. politics and Sino-U.S. relations. Taiyi is the U.S. new media coordinator of the Global Forum of Chinese Political Scientists and is the executive editor of its primary publication, Global China.
Taiyi Sun researches and teaches the following topics:
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Chinese politics (elite politics and grassroots politics)
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Civil society, social capital, and social organization
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International Relations with a focus on East Asia
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Disaster response and crisis management
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Global environmental politics with a focus on hydro-politics
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International Political Economy
Articles, Publications, and Appearances
Appearances
- View several of Taiyi’s media appearances on his website here.
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University Salon (formerly Harvard Salon) and US-China Perception Monitor, “American Presidential Elections and Implications” (Panel in Mandarin Chinese), 2020
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Nanjing University virtual conference panel presentation, “Sino-U.S. relations in the Trump Era” (conference in Mandarin Chinese), 2020
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Fudan University virtual conference panel presentation, “Sino-US relations under the COVID-19 pandemic and U.S. elections” (conference in Mandarin Chinese), 2020
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American Political Science Association (APSA) Teaching and Learning conference paper presentation, “Creating social capital in classrooms: how different pedagogical methods could empower students and stimulate civic engagement,” 2020
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American Political Science Association (APSA) paper presentation, ”legalization without institutionalization: how the Chinese state uses the law-making process to govern the nascent civil society,” 2019
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American Political Science Association (APSA) paper presentation, “Interactive Censorship: The Editorial Experiences from Political Commentary Publications under Authoritarian China,” 2019
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Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) panel paper presentation, “The Trump Administration’s Jacksonian Foreign Policy and Its Implications to the Cross-Strait Relations,” 2019
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Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) panel paper presentation, “Earthquakes for Practices: How responses to natural disasters prepared authoritarian states and opposition groups for the Arab Spring,” 2019
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Zhengzhou Zhenyu Foundation featured guest speaker, “Leadership and Public Narrative,” 2019
Academic Publications
- Taiyi Sun, “Developmental States and Environment: Governed Market and Environmental Motivations in China and Japan,” in Environment, Sustainability, and Human Security, Zhiqun Zhu ed., World Scientific Reference. (Accepted, forthcoming) est.2022
- Taiyi Sun, “Controlling Civil Society from the Bottom-up: China’s Strategic Arrangement of the State-CSO-Individual Trialism in Managing State-Society Relations,” Journal of Contemporary China. 2022
- Elizabeth Matto, Alison McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, Taiyi Sun, Alasdair Blair, Dawn Whitehead, and Dick Simpson ed. Teaching Civic Engagement Globally, American Political Science Association, 2021
- Taiyi Sun, “Importing Civic Engagement into Authoritarian China,” in Teaching Civic Engagement Globally, Elizabeth Matto, Alison McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, Taiyi Sun, Alasdair Blair, Dawn Whitehead, and Dick Simpson ed. American Political Science Association Press , 2021
- Elizabeth C. Matto and Taiyi Sun, “Civic Engagement Pedagogy Across the Globe: Introduction,” in Teaching Civic Engagement Globally, Elizabeth Matto, Alison McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, Taiyi Sun, Alasdair Blair, Dawn Whitehead, and Dick Simpson ed. American Political Science Association, 2021
- Taiyi Sun and Quansheng Zhao, “Delegated Censorship: The Dynamic, Decentralized, and Multi-Layered Information Control Regime in China,” Politics and Society, May 2021.
- Taiyi Sun, “Vaccine Diplomacy and Sino-US Relations,” World Affairs (世界知识), 77(3): 48-50.
- Taiyi Sun, “Forced Experimentation: Teaching Civic Engagement Online amid COVID-19,” PS: Political Science & Politics, 54(1): 176-178, 2020.
Academic Talks and Conferences
- Nankai University virtual conference panel presentation, “Biden’s China Policy: Strategic Delay and Strategic Ambiguity” – 2021
- Yamanashi Gakuin University (Japan) virtual conference panel presentation, “The International Political Economy of 2021 and Beyond: Supply Chains, Stagflation risks, Trade blocs, and the transformation of economic fundamentals” – 2021
- American Political Science Association (APSA) paper presentation, “Importing Civic Education into Authoritarian China” – 2021
- Beijing University virtual conference panel presentation, “Global Public Goods Provision and Chinese Foreign Policy” 2021
- Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) panel paper presentation, “Developmental States and Environment: Governed Market and Environmental Motivations in China and Japan” 2021
- The Global Society of Cross-Taiwan Strait Studies, “Cross-Taiwan Strait Relations – Global Perspectives” (Panel in Mandarin Chinese) 2021