Current NYU Shanghai Global Research Initiatives Fellows

Jingyuan Mo
PhD Candidate, Department of Finance, Stern
Email:
jm3499@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (April 2 - May 4)： 

Mo is currently involved in two research projects with his advisor. The first one is on the Chinese bond market, in which they plan to obtain data from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, located in the Pudong district in Shanghai. The second project is on Chinese business firm groups: the two plan to collaborate with the research team of a data provider company in Pudong, located very close to NYU Shanghai campus. Mo and his advisor hope that their research results on Chinese markets can promote better understanding and inform the development of important policy implications for the bond market in China, as well as its firm structure evolution and connectedness. Due to the scarcity of research papers on these topics of Chinese market, Mo believes that their pioneering work will form a solid foundation for future research on related topics. 

Aileen Christensen
PhD Candidate, Department of French, GSAS
Email:
aac505@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (Nov 2 - Dec 10)：

Christensen’s dissertation is about medieval fairy figures in nineteenth-century French novels. She is comparing medieval and nineteenth-century literary portrayals while examining fantasies about women and their roles in romantic relationships. Fairies are supposedly from the past and otherworldly places and they often represent an imaginary escape from society and reality. Everything about a fairy—her physical appearance, her living space, her connection to nature, her education—adds to her seductive role in love narratives. As her dissertation is based entirely on French literature, Christensen has no connection to the site in Shanghai, but she will prepare to write and use online reading materials while in residence.

 

Laura Bullon
PhD Candidate, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
Email:
lb3124@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (March 30 - May 22)：

Bullon’s research focuses on how various definitions of sustainable development compete at the global level, particularly at the United Nations. She focuses on how activists use technology, and in particular social media tools, to advocate for their interpretation of the concept. For her project to be complete and not biased towards a Western understanding of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘civil society’, she hopes to better understand the Chinese perspective and context, such as the notion of ecological civilization and the nexus between the state and social media in China. Bullon looks forward to meeting the NYU Shanghai faculty working on themes related to sustainable development.

Kareem Collie
Master of Arts Candidate, Gallatin
Email:
kc1837@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (April 1 - May 22)：

Collie’s area of focus is the narrative construction of contemporary mythology viewed through the lens of visual communication. His time in Shanghai would be part of a language and cultural immersion for his research project. Collie plans to use the Chinese language and culture as one of the case studies in his research. The core questions of the study include: how does a language tradition orient the individual and ultimately the community to itself and it’s surroundings? How does this orientation through language manifest itself visually in a culture’s ideology and artifacts? 

 

Joshua Sooter
PhD Candidate, Department of History, GSAS
Email:
jas1317@nyu.edu

Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 15 - May 14)：

Sooter’s project explores how the devastation arising from the Taiping Rebellion [1850- 64], the socio-political upheavals during the last decades of Qing rule, and the influx of global intellectual trends produced the category of “religion” in China, and affected Chinese thought on religious practices. By studying the post-Taiping Qing period, he will interrogate how the modern category of religion was disseminated in conditions of already evolving Chinese intellectual paradigms. His research aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how Chinese actors engaged and translated foreign knowledge from within their own dynamic milieus, though often on terms that were not of their choosing. Sooter will primarily engage in research at the Shanghai Library and Fudan University Library.