I am a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at MIT, specializing in comparative political economy and political methodology. My research focuses on authoritarian politics, state-business relations, and social policy.
My dissertation examines how authoritarian states exert political control through private firms, aiming to address two questions: When do autocrats use private firms as instruments for political control? How do they implement this strategy? Empirically, I use quantitative and qualitative data from China to examine state infiltration of private firms via party cells and their pacifying effects. My dissertation has been supported by the APSA Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDRIG) and the Smith Richardson Foundation.
I hold an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) from Columbia University, an MSS in Government and Politics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Bachelor of Social Science Education from The Education University of Hong Kong.
Before starting my PhD, I worked on media and advocacy projects, including serving as a ChinaFile Research Fellow at Asia Society in New York and a research journalist at Initium Media in Hong Kong. I also coordinated a media project with Oxfam Hong Kong, where I traveled across China to interview migrant workers and NGOs, documenting their struggles to advocate for their rights.
More about my research can be found here, and my CV is here. You can reach out to me via email at ye_zhang@mit.edu.