What is everyday life under autocracy like? We have an image of violence, all-powerful elites, and jackbooted thugs, but many people living in modern autocratic regimes instead experience mundane repression, self-censorship, and distrust of formal institutions. In this panel, several Stanford scholars who research and who have lived through authoritarian rule reflect on how autocracies govern people’s daily lives, and how it is possible to resist these incursions. At a time when democracy is threatened in many countries, these experiences and lessons in resistance are more relevant than ever.

Panel

Anna Grzymala-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science, the Director of the Europe Center, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute. Her research focuses on the historical development of the state and its transformation, political parties, religion and politics, and post-communist politics. Other areas of interest include populism, informal institutions, and causal mechanisms.

Jovana Lazić is an historian whose research and teaching interests focus on belligerent occupation and the social and cultural history of the First World War; urban history; and the Habsburg Empire, the Balkans and Yugoslavia. She is author of several book chapters and articles on gender and war and the Habsburg-occupied Serbian capital of Belgrade during World War I.  A graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and recipient of a diplome from Sciences Po-Paris, she received her PhD from Yale University. Jovana came to Stanford in 2006 to teach in the History Department and joined the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies in 2013.

Haiyan Lee is Professor of Comparative Literature, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Walter A. Haas Professor of the Humanities. Her first book, Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950, is a critical genealogy of the idea of “love” (qing) in modern Chinese literary and cultural history. It was awarded the 2009 Joseph Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies for the best English-language book on post-1900 China. It is the first recipient of this prize in the field of modern Chinese literature. Her second book,  The Stranger and the Chinese Moral Imagination, examines how the figure of “the stranger”—foreigner, migrant, class enemy, woman, animal, ghost—in Chinese fiction, film, television, and exhibition culture tests the moral limits of a society known for the primacy of consanguinity and familiarity. Her third book,  A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination investigates Chinese visions of “justice” at the intersection of narrative, law, and ethics. She is working on a new project on animism, cognition, and the Chinese environmental imagination.

Hesham Sallam is a Senior Research Scholar at CDDRL, where he serves as Associate Director for Research. He is also Associate Director of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. Sallam is co-editor of Jadaliyya ezine and a former program specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace. His research focuses on political and social development in the Arab World. Sallam’s research has previously received the support of the Social Science Research Council and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is author of Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt (Columbia University Press, 2022), co-editor of Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World (University of Michigan Press, 2022), and editor of Egypt's Parliamentary Elections 2011-2012: A Critical Guide to a Changing Political Arena (Tadween Publishing, 2013). Sallam received a Ph.D. in Government (2015) and an M.A. in Arab Studies (2006) from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh (2003).

Ali Yaycıoğlu is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies Forum. He is a historian specializing in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. His research examines various dimensions of political, economic, and legal institutions and practices, as well as the social and cultural dynamics of the Ottoman world and Turkey, from the sixteenth century to the present. He is also interested in using digital tools to understand, visualize, and conceptualize historical developments. Dr. Yaycıoğlu teaches courses on the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey; Empires, Markets & Networks in the Early Modern World; the Age of Revolutions; Histories of Democracy and Capitalism; and Digital Humanities.

This event is sponsored by The Europe Center; Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL); Office of the Dean of Humanities & Sciences; and CREEES Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 

Don't Panic, Don't Panic! The Baltic States in the New World Orde

Russia's annexation of Crimea in early 2014 kick-started a process of reassessing security threats to the Baltic region and profound political and social change in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 further raised the temperature and saw sharp rises in defense spending, a restructuring of the party system and new nationalizing domestic policies aimed at increasing social cohesion and tackling intelligence and misinformation threats from the East.

However, the first few months of the new presidential administration in the U.S.A. have, arguably, accelerated even greater change in the three Baltic states as they are forced to rapidly adjust to a new world order.

This talk will reflect on how swiftly shifting US-European relations have led the Baltic states to reconsider their security arrangements, realign diplomatic partnerships and refocus core domestic policies.

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Daunis Auers is Professor of European Studies and Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Latvia, Director of the Latvia’s Strategy and Economic Research (LaSER) think tank and a member of the Latvian president’s National Competitiveness Council. His recent research interests are in the comparative politics, economics and regional integration of the Baltic and Nordic states and has recently worked on bureaucratic reform and efficiency. He is a member of the Latvian prime minister's working group on "Cutting Bureaucracy". Professor Auers defended his PhD at University College London and previously studied at the London School of Economics. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley (2005-2006), University of Washington in Seattle (2023-2024) and a Baltic-American Freedom Foundation Scholar at Wayne State University in Detroit (2014).

Free and open to the public. Registration is requested.

This event is part of Global Conversations, a series of talks, lectures, and seminars hosted by Stanford University Libraries and Vabamu with the goal of educating scholars, students, leaders, and the public on the benefits of but also challenges related to sustaining freedom.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is the largest funding agency for academic research in Japan. Fellowships are offered for graduate students, Ph.D. students, post-doctoral fellows, researchers, and professors at all levels in all fields. If you are interested in researching in Japan, join us for a hybrid information session with JSPS SFO staff to find out more. 

Featuring Prof. Kiyoteru Tsutsui, director of the Japan Program at APARC and center deputy director.

JSPS SFO will be hosting a giveaway and providing lunch! 

If you have any questions, you can reach JSPS SFO at: (510) 665-1890 or sfo-fellowship@overseas.jsps.go.jp

SCCEI Seminar Series (Spring 2025)

Friday, May 2, 2025 | 1:45 pm -3:05 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Flick, Click, and Sick: Mental Health Risks of Short-Video Platforms

This study examines the causal impact of short-video platforms like Douyin on mental health in China since 2016. Using city-level data on platform adoption and 4G expansion, combined with individual panel data from the China Family Panel Studies, we identify causal effects by focusing on pre-2016 mobile internet users in high-4 G-penetration cities. Our findings reveal significant mental health deterioration among affected individuals, with stronger depressive symptoms emerging over time. Effects are most pronounced among vulnerable populations: rural residents, youth, the elderly, and those without college degrees, with rural left-behind youths and the elderly showing the most severe outcomes. We identify four key impact channels: (1) heightened social comparison and inequality perception, with affected users reporting lower perceived income and greater awareness of societal inequality; (2) altered time use, including reduced work hours, sleep, and exercise; (3) declining non-cognitive abilities and physical health, evidenced by lower self-reported health status and increased doctor visits; and (4) weakened interpersonal relationships, demonstrated by decreased time and attention affected adults devote to parents and/or children. These findings highlight the unintended consequences of digital innovation on mental health, particularly for vulnerable demographics, and offer important insights for policymakers balancing technological advancement with public health considerations.

Please register for the event to receive email updates and add it to your calendar. Light refreshments will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Ting Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Accountancy, Economics and Finance (AEF) at Hong Kong Baptist University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. Her research specializes in political economy, economic history, and long-term development economics, with a focus on assessing the effectiveness and economic impact of China’s historical and current policies. Her works have been published in Economic Journal and Quarterly Journal of Economics. She serves as the associate director of the Centre for Business Analytics and the Digital Economy (CBADE)  in the School of Business. She is the associate editor of Pacific Economic Review and Regional Science and Urban Economics.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

About the event: Over the last two decades, the United States has supported a range of militias, rebels, and other armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Critics have argued that such partnerships have many perils, from enabling human rights abuses to seeding future threats. Is it possible to work with such forces but mitigate some of these risks? In Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Erica L. Gaston explores U.S. efforts to do just that, drawing on a decade of field research and hundreds of interviews with stakeholders to unpack the dilemmas of attempting to control proxy forces.

The book has been described by reviewers as a "grim but necessary autopsy of America’s policy failures” in the last two decades (Ariel Ahram) and a book that casts light on the "moral hazards and strategic pitfalls of partnerships forged in war" (H.R. McMaster). Gaston’s conclusions not only suggest a greater need for strategic thinking in how risks are managed and weighed in U.S. Security Policy, but also help nuance the academic frameworks and lenses used to understand proxy warfare dynamics. By combining insights and tools from the fields of international relations that incorporate a more diverse set of international actors with domestic bargaining and organizational theory, the book helps to expand the theoretical toolkit for understanding foreign policy generation.

About the speaker: Dr. Erica Gaston is Head of the Conflict Prevention Programme at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s SIPA programme. Her most recent book with Columbia University Press, Illusions of Control: Dilemmas of Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, was recently short-listed for the Conflict Research Society’s Book of the Year Prize 2025. Her prior academic articles and book compendiums have considered changing norms and practices within international humanitarian law.

She has a B.A from Stanford University, a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School, and a PhD from Cambridge University.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.

About the event: Scholars of nuclear brinkmanship have long debated whether nuclear crises are dominated by a balance of resolve, or whether nuclear superiority may offset that balance in favor of the more technologically advanced competitor. Recent studies indicate the latter, suggesting that the high accuracy of modern strategic weapons may have ushered in a “new era of counterforce dominance.” The state that masters those weapons, they argue, can steel their resolve if they become confident in their ability to eliminate an adversary’s retaliatory nuclear forces in a disarming first strike. Yet these counterforce enthusiasts overlook an important technological headwind: the complexity of advanced weapon systems can confound nuclear planners’ ability to predict their performance in a real nuclear exchange. This challenge is particularly acute for counterforce systems that cannot be tested in operational settings, and whose failure would bring catastrophic consequences on their user. Drawing from scholarship in complexity theory and science and technology studies, Lawrence argues that nuclear competitions are also beset by a balance of nuclear humility: States with more grandiose, technically demanding nuclear doctrines can be less confident in their knowledge, must work harder to retain their capabilities, and can hence be less certain in the success of their nuclear missions. More humble competitors may address their vulnerabilities with relatively modest innovation, and fret less over vagaries of the unknown. Crucially, the advantages and disadvantages of technological humility can run against those traditionally associated with the balances of capability and resolve. Lawrence illustrates this dynamic by constructing a Monte Carlo simulation of a counterforce strike with modern US strategic missiles on China’s silo-based missile force. He shows that small variations in parameters that cannot be known to the attacker with certainty correspond to wide variation in strike outcomes. The resulting uncertainty in costs to the attacker complicates popular strategic theories of damage limitation.

About the speaker: Christopher Lawrence is Assistant Professor of Science, Technology and International Affairs in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. He studies the histories of U.S. nonproliferation engagement with North Korea and Iran, as well as the epistemic communities in the West that create knowledge about those countries’ nuclear programs. His academic writing has been published in International Security, Social Studies of Science, Journal of Applied Physics, and IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. He has also written policy analysis for various online publications, including Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and War on the Rocks.

Prior to Joining SFS, Christopher carried out postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation; Harvard’s Program on Science, Technology and Society and Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; and Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. He carried out his PhD dissertation in Nuclear Science and Engineering at University of Michigan, where he developed novel neutron-spectroscopy techniques for characterizing nuclear warhead components for treaty verification.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.