{IN PERSON}

The India China Institute (ICI) was founded at The New School in 2004 with a generous gift from the Starr Foundation to pursue new ways of thinking about the re-emergence of India and China on the world stage. Its mission was to study connections and flows between China, India and the United States in the context of a globalizing world that was transcending the bounded assumptions of “national interest” and geographies such as of “East Asia,” “South Asia” or “the West.” Twenty years later, optimism about globalization has been replaced by a disillusionment with liberal promises of mutual prosperity and progress arising from global flows of people, capital, and goods. The international economy is characterized by high tariffs, retaliatory sanctions, and regional trade groupings. States have securitized borders and mobilized grievances against domestic and geopolitical rivals, with raging wars and impending “Cold Wars,” exemplifying the collapse of shared global rules of engagement. Investments in public commons and multilateral institutions have been replaced by a discourse and practice of parochial protectionism.

In such an epochal moment of disarray and conflict, how can China and India offer vantage points for understanding a “post-liberal” world? This symposium, marking the twentieth anniversary of ICI, will explore how thinking with the pasts and presents of India, China, and the United States can help us analyze the challenges of the contemporary moment and reflect on alternative futures.

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Agenda

Day 1

April 24th 2025, Thursday
5:00PM – 7:30PM

Opening Remarks and
Panel 1: The University Under a Global Authoritarian Turn

Governments and powerful social actors have both promoted higher education in the service of national power while seeking to place curbs on the teaching, research and political activity of scholars and universities. In 21st century China and India, governments have channeled impressive financial resources into higher education to create world-class research universities. At the same time, they have imposed new restrictions on the curriculum and restricted engagement with sensitive topics, including in some instances eliminating entire disciplinary programs. How broader political discourses and tensions in Indian and Chinese politics play out within their universities make for analogues – but also contrasts – to what is found in the United States. How can universities in our contemporary era produce innovation, new forms of knowledge, and new generation of thinkers needed to address multiple global crises?

This panel will address the contradictions of academic prestige and academic freedom in contemporary India, China, and also the United States, and consider the challenges of international academic exchanges in the current environment.

OPENING REMARKS

Joel Towers is the President of The New School and University Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design. He has been at The New School for over 20 years, serving previously as the executive dean of the Parsons School of Design. As an architect, Towers has worked on projects that champion environmentally sustainable and socially responsible design. Towers has also played a key role in shaping New York City’s climate resilience strategy, co-chairing the New York City Panel on Climate Change. He earned a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.

Towers’ academic work focuses on the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and sustainability, with an emphasis on how design solutions can address global environmental challenges. He is particularly interested in the role of architecture in mitigating climate change, designing energy-efficient and socially inclusive urban spaces, and fostering resilience in cities. Towers has published extensively on sustainable design practices, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach that integrates ecological, economic, and social considerations. His work at The New School has led to the creation of innovative programs that combine design thinking with policy and social justice, preparing students to lead in an era of rapid environmental and social transformation.

SPEAKERS

Craig Calhoun is University Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Prior to this position, he taught at Columbia University, New York University, where he founded the Institute for Public Knowledge, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as Dean of the Graduate School and directed the University Center for International Studies. He has also served as president of the London School of Economics, the Social Science Research Council, and the Berggruen Institute. He holds a PhD from Oxford University.

Calhoun has wide-ranging research interests, including critical global issues such as the future of democracy, the impact of technology on work and society, global political economy, and nationalism and social movements. Most recently, he is the co-author of Degenerations of Democracy and co-editor of The Green New Deal and the Future of Work. He is also the author of Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China. Beyond academia, he is deeply involved in public service, sitting on advisory boards for organizations like the MasterCard Foundation and Reset Dialogues.

Apoorvanand Jha is Professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi. He has taught previously at Magadh University and Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University. He earned his Masters and PhD from Patna University. Jha was part of the core group that designed the National Curriculum Framework for School Education in 2005 and was a member of the national Focus Group on Teaching of Indian Languages formed by the National Council for Educational Research and Training.

Academically, Jha has worked on the development of Marxist aesthetics in Hindi literature, exploring how aesthetic and ideological dimensions of this literature reflect and shape societal values. Jha is also a columnist in leading newspapers, magazines, and online sites, broadly writing on issues of education, culture, communalism, violence, and human rights. He has published two books of literary criticism, Sundar Ka Swapna and Sahitya Ka Ekant.

Kellee Tsai (PhD, Columbia University) is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University. She previously served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Vice Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the East Asian Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University. Tsai is an international board member of the Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore, the Center for Contemporary China Studies at National Tsinghua University, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the India-China Institute at the New School for Social Research, and Taipei School of Economics and Political Science. She has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

Tsai’s research explores the political economy of China, focusing on authoritarian capitalism, informal institutions, party-state capitalism, surveillance, and reverse migration and remittances in China and India. She is the author or editor of seven books, including Back-Alley Banking: Private Entrepreneurs in China (2002), Capitalism without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China (2007), State Capitalism, Institutional Adaptation and the Chinese Miracle (2015), and The State and Capitalism in China (2023). Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and National Science Foundation.

MODERATOR

Mark Frazier is Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research and Co-Director of the India China Institute at The New School (New York City). His research interests include labor and social policy in China, and the politics of citizenship and urban protest in China and India. He is the author of The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth Century Shanghai and Bombay (2019), Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (2010), and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (2002). He has authored op-ed pieces and essays for The New York Times, Daedalus, and The Diplomat. Frazier serves on the editorial board of China Quarterly and is a Faculty Associate at Columbia University’s China Center for Social Policy. He received a Fulbright Research award in 2004-05, and has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

Day 2

April 25th 2025, Friday
10:00AM – 12:00PM

Panel 2: De-globalization and a New International Political Economy

The Chinese government’s emphasis on reducing dependency on foreign technology and fostering homegrown innovation reflects a broader strategy to consolidate its economic sovereignty and global influence. India’s economic nationalism is characterized by initiatives such as “Make in India” that aim to boost domestic manufacturing, reduce import dependence, and enhance the competitiveness of Indian industries. The United States has seen a shift towards protectionism and policies to prioritize American industries and workers. This includes renegotiation of trade deals, imposition of tariffs, and initiatives to revive domestic manufacturing.

This panel considers the rise and return of economic nationalism and industrial policy in India, China, and the United States, the emergence of regional blocs, and the ensuing implications for technology sectors, manufacturing, and the global economy.

Ravi Kanbur is T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs at Cornell University. He previously taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Princeton University, and Columbia University, among others. He has held several senior staff positions at the World Bank, including Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. Kanbur has also served as Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission, Chair of the Board of United Nations University–World Institute for Development Economics Research, President of the Human Development and Capability Association, and President of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. He holds a PhD from Oxford University. Kanbur’s research is focused on public economics, development economics, and economic theory. His publications have covered topics of inequality, poverty, structural adjustment, agriculture, urbanization, and labor, among others. He is well known in the field of international development, not just for his ample academic work, but for his public engagement and policy analysis. Kanbur has published in leading economic journals, including Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, and American Economic Review. He is also a co-editor of the recent books International Development: Ideas, Experience, and Prospects, and Climate Justice: Integrating Economics and Philosophy.

William Milberg is Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. His research focuses on the relation between globalization and income distribution, and the history and philosophy of economics. He has written extensively on global value chains and their implications for economic development, financialization and intellectual property. His recent work focuses on the economic causes and consequences of the multinational retreat from liberal democracy, including an edited issue of Social Research and a book published by The New Institute. His current book project is on the relation between globalization and sports. Milberg has worked as a consultant to the UNDP, the ILO, the UNCTAD and the World Bank. He is the author of Outsourcing Economics: Global Value Chains in Capitalist Development (with Deborah Winkler). Two previous books, The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economic Thought and The Making of Economic Society were co-authored with the late Robert Heilbroner. He serves on the editorial boards of Politics & Society, The Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, The International Review of Applied Economics and is on the Advisory Board of Socio-Economic Review. Milberg served as Dean of the New School for Social Research from 2013-2023.

Min YE is a Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Ye has received numerous grants and fellowships, including the Smith Richardson Foundation grant and the East Asia Peace, Prosperity, and Governance Fellowship. She was also selected as a Public Intellectual Program fellow by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and as the Rosenberg Scholar of East Asian Studies at Suffolk University.She holds a PhD from Princeton University.

YE’s research interests include Chinese political economy, China and India comparison, East Asian international relations, and globalization, focusing on transnational immigration and foreign investment. Her research is particularly relevant for understanding the complexities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its growing influence around the world.YE is the author of The Belt, Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China 1998–2018 and Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India. Her published journal articles cover topics such as the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the role of diasporas in foreign direct investment, and the intersection of globalization with regional and national political agendas.

MODERATOR

Manjari Mahajan’s work lies at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Development Studies, and Anthropology. Her research and teaching are on the topics of global health, philanthrocapitalism, and digital governance. Much of her empirical focus has been on India and South Africa, and more recently, on global organizations such as the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization. She has held fellowships at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology at Halle, Germany, and the Social Science Research Council in the United States. Her papers have received prizes from the Society for Social Studies for Science and the American Anthropological Association. She received her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University, her MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU Sussex University, and her BA from Harvard University.

Day 2

April 25th 2025, Friday
1:30PM – 3:30PM

Panel 3: Contesting History and Memory

The Chinese government’s emphasis on reducing dependency on foreign technology and fostering homegrown innovation reflects a broader strategy to consolidate its economic sovereignty and global influence. India’s economic nationalism is characterized by initiatives such as “Make in India” that aim to boost domestic manufacturing, reduce import dependence, and enhance the competitiveness of Indian industries. The United States has seen a shift towards protectionism and policies to prioritize American industries and workers. This includes renegotiation of trade deals, imposition of tariffs, and initiatives to revive domestic manufacturing.

This panel considers the rise and return of economic nationalism and industrial policy in India, China, and the United States, the emergence of regional blocs, and the ensuing implications for technology sectors, manufacturing, and the global economy.

Jane Burbank is Professor Emerita of History and Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. She has taught at NYU since 2002 and is active in the university’s initiatives in Russian, Eurasian, and global history. She is a member of NYU’s Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. Before joining NYU, she held faculty positions at Harvard University, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Michigan. She directed UM’s Center for Russian and East European Studies for several years in the 1990s. She now spends part of each year in Paris and is a member of CERCEC (Centre d’études russes, caucasiennes, est-européennes et centrasiatiques) of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. She holds a PhD from Harvard University.
Burbank’s research spans the fields of Russian, imperial, and legal history. Her work examines the dynamics of empire, law, and governance, particularly in Russian and Soviet contexts. Most recently, she is the co-author, with Frederick Cooper, of Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia, as well as Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference. She is the author of Russian Peasants Go to Court: Legal Culture in the Countryside, 1905–1917 and Intelligentsia and Revolution: Russian Views of Bolshevism, 1917–1922, and the co-editor of Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930, and Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire. Burbank is an active participant in international academic networks and projects on empire and legal history. With Frederick Cooper, she received the Toynbee Prize for the study of global history in 2023.

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He has held teaching positions at the National University of Singapore, as well as the University of Chicago, where he was the Chair of the Department of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies. He holds a PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University.

Duara works in the fields of modern Chinese history, decolonization, and the global history of modernity. His scholarship questions the conventional understanding of the nation-state, sovereignty, and colonialism; additionally, Duara’s work offers new frameworks for analyzing the cultural and political dimensions of modernity in East Asia. His books include Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942, which won the Fairbank Prize, and The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future. Following the publication of the latter, Duara was awarded the doctor philosophiae honoris causa from the University of Oslo in 2017.

Manu Goswami is Associate Professor of History at New York University. She serves on the editorial boards of The American Historical Review, Public Culture, and Critical Historical Studies. Her work has appeared in The American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of Historical Sociology, and Constellations, among other journals. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Goswami’s research has focused on the history of capitalism, political economy, nationalism, social theory, and the history of economic thought. More specifically she has examined colonial and post-colonial legacies of economic development in modern India. Her most recent book, Political Imaginaries in Twentieth Century India, was published in 2022, and she is also the author of Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space. Goswami’s research also delves into the broader history of economic thought, analyzing the intersections between political and economic change in South Asia.

Claire Potter is Professor Emerita of History at The New School for Social Research, where she previously served as co-executive Editor of Public Seminar, a digital platform for intellectual and political debate. Before joining The New School, she was part of the faculty at Wesleyan University and held visiting positions at institutions such as Yale University and the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in History from New York University.

Potter’s work spans the fields of U.S. political history, gender and sexuality studies, and digital humanities, examining the intersections of media, politics, and social movements in modern America. Her most recent book, Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy, explores the rise of alternative political media in the United States. She is also the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Incarceration in American History. Potter has published work in outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Jacobin, and Dissent, and has run several blogs, the current being her Substack Political Junkie. She also on editorial boards for journals such as Feminist Studies and The Journal of American History.

MODERATOR

Jonathan Bach is Professor of Global Studies at The New School. He is a longtime ICI faculty advisor, a faculty affiliate at ICI. He has also served as the founding Chair of the Global Studies Program and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. Bach held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and Columbia University after receiving his PhD in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He has also held visiting positions at institutions such as Columbia University, Humboldt University in Berlin, and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies in Hamburg.

Bach’s work spans the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and politics. His work examines social change following economic, political, and cultural disruption, especially in the post-socialist world. His most recent book is What Remains: Everyday Encounters with the Socialist Past in Germany. Bach was also the co-editor of Re-Centring the City: Urban Mutations, Socialist Afterlives, and the Global East, as well as Learning from Shenzhen: China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City. He is actively involved in scholarly communities, serving on editorial boards for journals such as German Politics and Society and Sociologica, as well as a faculty affiliate at Columbia University’s Center on Organizational Innovation.

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Day 2

April 25th 2025, Friday
3:45PM – 5:15PM

Concluding Panel: India and China in the Making of a Post-Liberal World

This session features members of ICI’s External Advisory Board who will consider the global disruptions launched by the Trump administration and the demise of the liberal international order. The political trajectories of India and China over the past decade can provide a lens to understand changes under way within the United States, as well as the new norms and institutions of a post-liberal, post-American, post-western world order.

SPEAKERS

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He has held teaching positions at the National University of Singapore, as well as the University of Chicago, where he was the Chair of the Department of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies. He holds a PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University.

Duara works in the fields of modern Chinese history, decolonization, and the global history of modernity. His scholarship questions the conventional understanding of the nation-state, sovereignty, and colonialism; additionally, Duara’s work offers new frameworks for analyzing the cultural and political dimensions of modernity in East Asia. His books include Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942, which won the Fairbank Prize, and The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future. Following the publication of the latter, Duara was awarded the doctor philosophiae honoris causa from the University of Oslo in 2017.

Peter J. Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He has been a longtime faculty member at Cornell and has played a central role in shaping the university’s programs in international relations and political science, including as editor of the Cornell Studies in Political Economy. Katzenstein has also served as President of the American Political Science Association and has been involved in numerous interdisciplinary initiatives across global academic institutions. He holds several honorary degrees, including from the Peking University and the University of Antwerp, and was awarded the 2020 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Katzenstein earned his PhD from Harvard University.

Katzenstein’s work spans the disciplines of international relations, political economy, and comparative politics. His research explores the role of culture, identity, and regionalism in world politics, with a focus on Europe and Asia. His most recent books are Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, and Protean Power: Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics, co-edited with Lucia Seybert. He is also the author of A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, and has a forthcoming book titled Entanglements in World Politics: The Power of Uncertainty. Katzenstein is actively engaged in scholarly communities, serving on editorial boards for journals such as International Organization and World Politics, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the British Academy.

Kellee Tsai (PhD, Columbia University) is Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University. She previously served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; and Vice Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the East Asian Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University. Tsai is an international board member of the Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore, the Center for Contemporary China Studies at National Tsinghua University, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the India-China Institute at the New School for Social Research, and Taipei School of Economics and Political Science. She has been a Public Intellectuals Program fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations since 2005.

Tsai’s research explores the political economy of China, focusing on authoritarian capitalism, informal institutions, party-state capitalism, surveillance, and reverse migration and remittances in China and India. She is the author or editor of seven books, including Back-Alley Banking: Private Entrepreneurs in China (2002), Capitalism without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China (2007), State Capitalism, Institutional Adaptation and the Chinese Miracle (2015), and The State and Capitalism in China (2023). Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and National Science Foundation.

Min Ye is a Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Ye has received numerous grants and fellowships, including the Smith Richardson Foundation grant and the East Asia Peace, Prosperity, and Governance Fellowship. She was also selected as a Public Intellectual Program fellow by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and as the Rosenberg Scholar of East Asian Studies at Suffolk University. She holds a PhD from Princeton University.

Ye’s research interests include Chinese political economy, China and India comparison, East Asian international relations, and globalization, focusing on transnational immigration and foreign investment. Her research is particularly relevant for understanding the complexities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its growing influence around the world. Ye is the author of The Belt, Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China 1998–2018 and Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India. Her published journal articles cover topics such as the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the role of diasporas in foreign direct investment, and the intersection of globalization with regional and national political agendas.