Current NYU Shanghai Global Research Initiatives Fellows

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 23 - December 13):

Focusing on the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), Jinyi Liu’s dissertation examines the court production of marble quarried from Fangshan, a county at the southwest corner of Beijing. Stones extracted from this region have been mainly known as hanbaiyu (Chinese white jade) and qingbaishi (blue-white stone). Rather than focusing on static, finished artifacts, Liu explores the ever-evolving life of the material, tracing the transformations of the stone from a block of freshly extracted raw material to an intricately carved sculpture. This project offers new insights into the studies of Qing and East Asian art through experimenting with a conceptual framework that places the material, the environment, and human labor as agents in a network of shared authorship. 

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 9 - October 29):

Fallon Meng’s research project focuses on the invasive spotted lanternfly (SLF), particularly studying its genetic diversity and thermal tolerance in urban environments, using New York City as a primary study site. The spotted lanternfly (SLF) causes significant damage to U.S. agriculture and the wine industry by feeding on a wide range of plants, leading to reduced crop yields and quality, and requiring costly management efforts. This fellowship in Shanghai provides Meng a unique opportunity to compare the SLF populations in its native region (China) with those in an invasive setting (NYC). This comparative study of genetic makeup and phenotypic adaptations of SLF between NYC and Shanghai will shed light on how urban environments influence genetic variation and thermal tolerance in invasive species.  It also allows for a direct assessment of how SLF adapts to new environments, contributing significantly to invasive genetics. Understanding these dynamics in Shanghai's context is vital for developing effective control strategies for SLF populations in urban areas worldwide, including NYC. 

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (September 16 - December 15):

Veronique Mickisch’s dissertation explores the emergence of what she calls Stalinist economics in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. Mickisch defines Stalinist economics as a particular form of economics that was rooted in the traditions of statism and economic autarky. Mickisch places the shift in the USSR in the 1920s in the context of the international trend toward economic autarky that was initiated by World War I.  At the same time, the Soviet example shows that alternatives to economic autarky did exist. Soviet economics had a variety of faces, but Stalinist economics was enforced through increasingly violent suppression of those who challenged it, culminating in the Terror of the 1930s. Mickisch’s research has significant implications for our understanding of the development not only of economics in the West but also in China. Here, political and economic thought after 1949 developed under significant influence of the trends that had emerged and become dominant in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, alternative, internationalist approaches to Marxist economics whose proponents were murdered in the Great Terror remained unknown. Mickisch has written two thirds of the dissertation and is planning to complete the draft by the end of 2024.