YA-WEN LEI

Welcome to my website! I am Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. I am also affiliated with several centers at Harvard, including the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Asia Center.

I was born and raised in Taiwan. My academic background includes training in both law and sociology, as I hold a LLM and a JSD from Yale Law School, as well as a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Following my graduation from Michigan in 2013, I served as a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 2013 to 2016. In academic year 2018–2019, she was a visiting professor at Sciences Po in France.

My research interests encompass a variety of fields, including political sociology, sociology of media and information technologies, law & society, sociology of work and labor, development, economic sociology, science and technology studies, and China studies. My work primarily utilizes qualitative and comparative methods. At the moment, I'm working on projects related to the semiconductor industry and the changing phase of globalization, the platform economy, and the application of AI at work.

I am the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton University Press, 2018) and The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (Princeton University Press in November 2023). My publications have appeared in various journals, including general sociological journals such as the American Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Socius; specialized social science journals like Law and Society Review, Work, Employment and Society, and Political Communication; and an area study journal, The China Quarterly. These publications have received recognition from the American Sociological Association, the Law and Society Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, and The China Quarterly—the leading interdisciplinary journal in China studies.