email: yawenlei@fas.harvard.edu

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, the Asia Center, and the Committee on Regional Studies East Asia.

I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. My academic background includes training in both law and sociology, as I hold a LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School, as well as a Ph.D. 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 the academic year of 2018-2019, I served as a visiting professor at Sciences Po in France.

Trained in the area of Power, History, and Social Change at Michigan Sociology, my research
questions aim to understand the process, nature, and consequences of social change. 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.

I am the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton University Press, 2018), as well as the forthcoming book, The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (to be published by Princeton University Press in November 2023). My work primarily utilizes qualitative and comparative methods.

My publications have appeared in various journals, including general sociological journals such as the 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, and The China Quarterly, which is the leading interdisciplinary journal in China studies