The Authoritarian Political Systems Group (APSG) is an online seminar series for researchers studying issues of authoritarian politics. We intend to connect researchers working on different aspects of autocracies and with different regional concentrations. Our bi-weekly seminar will provide an opportunity to receive feedback on their work in progress.
We welcome presentations by scholars in comparative politics, international relations, and political theory as well as with different methodological approaches (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, etc.). We particularly encourage submissions from traditionally underrepresented groups including women and minorities, as well as early-carreer scholars (e.g., graduate students, post-docs, junior faculty).
The APSG online seminar will be held every other week on Tuesdays between 5:00-6:00 PM Central European Time (8:00-9:00 AM PST, 11:00-12:00 AM EST). The workshop will last one hour. After a brief presentation by the author(s), two discussants will provide comments and suggestions. We then open the floor for further questions and comments from the audience.
- 3 May: "Teachers as State-Builders: Public Education and Land Reform in Post-Revolutionary Mexico"
Presenter: Manuel Cabal (University of Chicago) Discussants: Francisco Cantu (University of Houston), Jenny Guardado (University of Georgetown), Emily Sellars (Yale)
- 31 May:
Presenter: Maria Chiara Franceschelli (Scuola Normale Superiore) Discussants: TBA
- 14 June: "Transparency for Authoritarian Stability: Open Government Information and Contention with Institutions in China"
Presenter: Handi Li (Emory University) Discussants: TBA
If you want to be notified for upcoming events and opportunitites, send us an email at apsgworkshop@gmail.com with the text "Updates Please." We will add you to our newsletter!
- Regular seminars will be open to the public and last one hour.
- We will recruit two discussants to read each paper and provide feedback. Please provide us with the names of 3-4 suitable discussants.
- Please share the working paper with us at least 14 days before the presentation date to give the discussants sufficient time to read it.
- The authors will introduce their work in a 15-minute presentation at the beginning of each session.
- The discussants then have 10 minutes each to share their comments about the paper. After that, we will open the floor to the audience to participate.
- We also encourage the discussants to provide additional feedback to the presenters via email after the seminar.
Fabio is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). During the Academic Year 2021/2022, he will be visiting the Department of Government at Cornell.
His research interests center on comparative politics, authoritarian political institutions, political behavior, and political economy. He combines quantitative methods, time series, panel data, and extensive qualitative fieldwork research.
In his dissertation, he explores the interaction between ruling parties and citizens in closed authoritarian regimes, the strategies ruling parties implement to maintain stability, and citizens political behavior towards the ruling party.
Nikolai Mukhin
Nikolai is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include comparative authoritarianism, elite institutions, leadership succession, informal politics, and communist regimes.
Before joining the HKU, He obtained his bachelor's and master's degree in Eastern Asian studies at the Moscow State University, focusing on Chinese history and politics. Besides the academic research, Nikolai worked as a Russian - Chinese interpreter for the leadership of the Moscow State University and numerous government institutions. He held visiting position at the University of California Los Angeles. His work has been published in Communist and Post-Communist Studies.
Felix is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Government and Public Administration at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and currently visiting scholar at the Central European University (CEU).
He studies authoritarian regimes, their legislatures, and policy-making processes from a comparative perspective and with a regional focus on China. In his dissertation, he explores how the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conferences (CPPCC) coopt societal elites, inform policy-making processes in China, and ultimately, contribute to regime stability.
His work has been published or is forthcoming in journals including Policy & Politics, Democratization, and Global Media and China. Prior to joining CUHK, he has received a Master of Arts in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen and a Master's Degree in Politics from East China Normal University.