Current NYU Shanghai Global Research Initiatives Fellows

Ines Finchelstein
M.P.A. Candidate, Department of Public Administration, Wagner
Email:
if540@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (January 9 - February 7)：

Finchelstein’s research centers on the role of NGOs and support organizations in promoting the economic empowerment of women migrants in China, with a focus in Shanghai. She seeks to analyze the gender dimensions of migration and the role that organizations play in assisting internal migrant women in their livelihood strategies for their economic empowerment, considering the structural barriers faced by rural migrants in big cities due to the “Hukou” system. In her current internship at the UN’s Women Economic Empowerment Section, she has learned that involving local civil society organizations is critical to ensure sustainability in any development project. Shanghai provides a unique landscape for her research, not only for the widespread internal migration and the challenges faced by women, but also due to its rising NGO sector. 

 

Professor Fei Li
Associate Professor, Department of Biology, FAS
Email:
fl43@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (January 27 - February 28)：

Professor Li’s research focuses on epigenetics, which is the study of heritable changes in phenotype that occur without changes in DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms are essential for many cellular processes, such as gene-expression regulation, genome organization, and cell-fate determination. Defects in epigenetic regulation have been implicated in a variety of diseases, including cancer. The aim of Professor Li’s research is to understand the fundamental principles of epigenetic regulation. Toward this goal, he has chosen to study the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe), a model eukaryotic organism well suited to a combination of powerful experimental approaches, including genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, and genomics. Importantly, fission yeast contains many conserved epigenetic components, and has thus emerged as a premier model for epigenetic study.

Gesai Ma
M.S. Candidate, Department of Technology Management and Innovation, Tandon
Email:
gm1957@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 6 - May 6)：

Ma’s research project examines Fin-tech (Financial Technology) development and its change in China. In Shanghai, Ma will focus on traditional finance organization and new modern finance institutions. He also plans to collect data from existing Fin-tech applications and investigate how their development has influenced the finance market in China. Ma has had several internships in Shanghai, and seeks to further establish effective relationships with government departments, universities, and enterprises.

Meng Wei
PhD Candidate, Department of History, GSAS
Email:
mw1601@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 13 - May 13)：

Wei’s dissertation focuses on the history of Islam and Muslims in late imperial China. It is a study of the changing social networks among Muslim officials, merchants, and local communities to re-envision the question of the Muslim identity, and to achieve a renewed understanding of the relationship between the state and the Muslims. Wei’s main sources include published and unpublished mosque and tomb stele inscriptions, archival sources, local gazetteers, official histories and biographies, and genealogies.

 

Cristina Colmena
PhD Candidate, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, GSAS
Email:
cc2917@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 15 - May 12)：

Colmena’s dissertation explores the relationship between image and fiction that emerges every time we look at photographs or archival footage. By approaching the photograph as a fragment or synecdoche of a world that we have to recreate in order to understand, the frame of the image becomes the border that marks the transition from the concrete to the fictionalized. In this way, the image becomes a kind of storytelling. Colmena’s research seeks to create contact with a language made of “images” - graphic symbols like ideograms that with different combinations can express very complex concepts and time.