Topic: TBD 

Speaker: TBD

Abstract TBD 

About the Student Seminar Series

Our Student Seminar Series offers emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each seminar features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Student Seminars are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Student Seminar Series webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

About the event: Why do adversaries sometimes cooperate to restrain their military competition? Why do they design arms control agreements with intrusive verification in some cases but rely on minimal transparency in others? Amidst ongoing international competition, arms control remains rare despite potential mutual benefits, and agreements vary dramatically in their approaches to monitoring. This book reveals how uncertainty from domestic political changes - such as leadership transitions or social unrest - can enable arms control. It identifies two paths to agreement: during periods of uncertainty, states that previously relied on informal understandings hedge by establishing lightly-monitored agreements, while those that anticipated deception take calculated risks through agreements with intensive verification. Through comprehensive data analysis and rich case studies, Jane Vaynman challenges conventional wisdom about uncertainty in international relations while offering insights for policymakers. As states confront challenges from nuclear competition to emerging technologies, understanding when arms control becomes viable is more vital than ever.

About the speaker: Dr. Jane Vaynman is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Vaynman’s work focuses on security cooperation between adversarial states, the design of arms control agreements, and the effects of technology on patterns of international cooperation and competition. From 2022-2024, she served as a senior advisor in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability at the U.S. Department of State. Her prior academic appointments include the Department of Political Science at Temple University and the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. She was also previously a Lightning Scholar at Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania, a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Fulbright Fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Dr. Vaynman received her Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University and B.A. in international relations from Stanford University.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.

About the event: This talk will discuss recent advancements in AI for biology, and relevant security and oversight considerations. It will also discuss how policy can be used to incentivize and shape technology development for defensive purposes, clarifying how the colloquial "defensive acceleration" or d/acc concept in AI circles relates to formal offense-defense balance concepts.

About the speaker: Dr. Pannu is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Senior Scholar at the Center for Health Security. She is currently Director of Frontier Safety at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a philanthropic research organization focused on AI for biology. Dr. Pannu’s primary areas of research include biosecurity, pandemic preparedness, and emerging technology security and governance. Dr. Pannu previously worked on AI-enabled diagnostics at Google and has served as a subject-matter expert for the National Academies of Sciences, the EU AI Office, and the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, among others. She serves on the board of Blueprint Biosecurity, a nonprofit dedicated to achieving breakthroughs in humanity's ability to prevent pandemics. Dr. Pannu regularly briefs government officials and policymakers on emerging technologies with security implications, including artificial intelligence and synthetic biology.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.

SCCEI Seminar Series (Spring 2027)

Friday, April 2, 2027 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Daniel Mattingly is Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He studies the domestic and international politics of authoritarian regimes, with a focus on China. He is the author of The Art of Political Control in China (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which examines how the Chinese state controls protests and implements ambitious social policies. It was named one of the best books of 2020 by Foreign Affairs and received the best book award from the Democracy and Autocracy Section of the American Political Science Association. His current book project examines the role of the military in China’s domestic and international politics. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2027)

Friday, February 19, 2027 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Nan Jia is the Capt. Henry W. Simonsen Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship and Professor of Strategic Management at the USC Marshall School of Business.

Her research examines how firms build, sustain, and renew competitive advantage in complex institutional and technological environments. Drawing on strategic management, entrepreneurship, and organizational theory, she studies business-government relations, innovation, emerging technologies, and corporate strategy, with a particular focus on how firms navigate the intersection of markets, governments, and society. 

A major stream of her research investigates how public policies and institutional environments shape entrepreneurship, innovation, and firm strategy in both developed and emerging economies. Her work has examined how government actions influence entrepreneurial activity, technological development, innovation outcomes, and the evolution of competitive advantage. More recently, she has studied how artificial intelligence and machine learning affect productivity, creativity, decision-making, and innovation in organizations ranging from entrepreneurial ventures and startups to large established firms. She also develops machine-learning-based methods to measure and study organizational and strategic outcomes, including innovation and technological change.

In addition to her research, Nan is a leader in teaching innovation in product management. She is the co-creator and academic director of USC Marshall's Graduate Certificate in Product Management and a co-creator of the Undergraduate Minor in Product Management. Her teaching focuses on product strategy, human-AI collaboration, innovation, and data-driven decision-making.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2027)

Friday, January 15, 2027 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Emma Xiaolu Zang is an Associate Professor of Sociology (with tenure) at Yale University, with secondary appointments in Biostatistics and Global Affairs. She directs the Computational Aging, Family, and Evidence Lab (Z-CAFE) and serves as the founding faculty organizer of the Yale Population Studies Speaker Series, which brings together scholars working on population and health research. Additionally, she is a non-resident fellow at the Center for China Analysis at the Asia Society Policy Institute. She has completed a Ph.D. in Public Policy in 2019 and an M.A. in Economics in 2017, both from Duke University.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Fall 2026)

Wednesday, December 2, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Professor Ji Yeon (Jean) Hong is a political scientist working on the political economy of authoritarianism, with particular attention to East Asia. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science and Korea Foundation Chair Professor of Korean Politics at the Nam Center for Korean Studies, International Institute, University of Michigan.

Hong has various ongoing research projects related to the legacy of the authoritarian past, the long-term impact of political violence, challenges to democracy during state-building, and the determinants of elite behavior and government policies under authoritarianism. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Politics, and Political Science Research and Methods, among others.

She is currently serving as an associate editor for the Political Science Research and Methods. Previously, she was an Associate Professor (2020-2022) and Assistant Professor (2014-2020) at the Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of Politics at New York University. Before NYU, she studied political science, economics (BA), and international relations (MS) at Seoul National University.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Fall 2026)

Friday, November 13, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Daniel Yi Xu is the David Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Economics at Duke University, a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research, and a Senior Fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research.

His research focuses on the intersection of productivity, international trade, and industrial organization. Professor Xu’s current research agenda involves the use of large-scale microdata to model and estimate a broad range of dynamic individual firm decisions and to examine how these decisions impact resource allocation, industry performance, and economic growth, particularly in developing and emerging economies.

His most recent work has been published in leading economics journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, RAND Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Dynamics, and Management Science. Professor Xu is currently a co-editor of the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics and an associate editor of the RAND Journal of Economics.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Fall 2026)

Friday, November 6, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

About the Speaker 
 

Ming Li is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Her research interests cover topics of the Chinese economy, political economy, and urban economics. Her current research focuses on industrial policy, internal migration and trade, and the political economy of firm dynamics in China. She received the Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Peking University and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

Selin Bengi Gümrükçü teaches political science at Rutgers University. She received her PhD from the University of Zurich. She previously taught at İzmir University of Economics and held visiting positions at Bielefeld University, Sciences Po, Paris 8, and the European University Institute. Her research focuses on social movements, political parties, the far right, political violence, and Europeanization, with an emphasis on Turkey. Her first book, Protest and Politics in Turkey in the 1970s: Echoes of Dissent, was published by Routledge in 2026.