Professor Kate Zhou
Background
Kate Xiao Zhou was born in Wuhan, China. She received her B.A. in English from Wuhan University, a M.S. in Sociology from Texas A&M University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University. She is now a professor of comparative politics and political economy of East Asia in the Department of political science at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She is the author of two important books about China: How the Farmers Changed China: Power of the People and China's Long March to Freedom: Grassroots Modernization.
Professor Zhou founded a non-profit, Education Advancement Fund International in 2002, helping rural and minority education in China. EAFI is the first place winner in the Social Entrepreneurship category of the Templeton Freedom Prize for Excellence in Promoting Liberty in 2006.
Research Interests
My main research areas focus on political economy of East Asia, the dynamics of transition from central planning to markets, Chinese economic development, Chinese business, globalization in East Asia, comparative studies of businesses and Asian entrepreneurship.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Political Science (POLS 110)
The goal in this class is to introduce some basic theories and assumptions about political science. This course provides students with an accessible and understandable approach to learning about political systems, human rights, institutions and economics of nation states. It will also cover topics that ranging from globalization and media. Several guest speakers will come to the class to talk about politics in Hawai'i and Asia.
Comparative Politics (POLS 340)
This course provides students with an accessible and understandable approach to learning about political systems, human rights, institutions and economics of seven states. They are China, Japan, Britain, Russian, the United States, India, and Nigeria. The focus will be to find out how those different countries have been grappling with the major forces that affected them. An important goal of this course is to enable students to make the best use of Internet and World Wide Web to find information about countries of their interest.
The Politics of Media (POLS 341)
This course provides students with an accessible and understandable approach to learning about political development in developing countries. The focus will be to find out how those different countries have been grappling with the major forces (globalization and wars) that affected them. An important goal of this course is to enable students to make the best use of Internet and World Wide Web to find information about countries of their interest.
Society and Politics in China (POLS 484, cross–listed with Asian Studies 484)
Few countries have had a more turbulent and dramatic history in the twentieth century than China. Each of the remarkable events – the 1911 Revolution, the Nationalist Reign, the Communist Triumph, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Post–Mao Reform, and the 1989 Tiananmen Rally – first aroused great hope and then caused immense despair among millions of people in the country. For foreign observers and experts, China has always surprised them with continuity when they expect change and change when they expect inertia.
This course is designed to help students make sense of twentieth century China – its dynamic changes, its lasting political culture, its enduring struggle for modernization, and its increasing integration with other parts of the world. We need to understand political thoughts and social actions by their contexts.
The course will be organized chronologically in order to provide a historical perspective. Our focus, however, will be on the period in recent Chinese politics from the Cultural Revolution to the present. Topics to be covered include the causes of revolutions, social change, the role of institutions and ideology, political economy and state–society relations. These topics are relevant to the social sciences in general, not just to the study of Chinese politics. Such an approach should allow comparisons with experiences and policies in other developing countries.
The course presupposes no initial knowledge about China, although those who have been trained in Chinese culture and history are most welcome.
Comparative Politics (POLS 640)
This course seeks to introduce students to major themes and empirical material in comparative politics. Students will learn something about a number of actual states. Topics include political culture, politics of modernization, dependence theory, theory of the state, theories of rational and moral economy, socialist transformation, politics of globalization, and women and development. Although this course is directed toward those who are planning to concentrate in comparative politics, most of themes to be discussed overlap with other sub–fields. Thus, the seminar will be useful for those students planning to concentrate in other areas of the discipline as well.
Chinese politics and Development (POLS 645C, cross–listed with Asian Studies 608)
This course is a political economy review of socialist market reform and globalization in contemporary China.
This course discusses the changing political/economic development with emphasis on the radical transition between socialist development and market reform periods. The changing policies within the two periods are examined. Attendant political economic events such as urbanization, social transformation, diaspora/re–unification, and globalization are explored.
The course is organized chronologically in order to provide a historical perspective, in which a key development topic in each policy phase is singled out for examination. Subjects to be covered include the causes of revolution, planned dualism, administrative alternatives, ideology and institution, state–society relations, the linkage between politics and economy. The focus is on the in current period Chinese political economy after the Cultural Revolution. These topics are relevant to the social sciences in general, but also would allow comparisons with experiences and policies in other developing countries.
Political Thought: Politics of Genocide (POLS 710)
This course focuses on comparative regimes of terror in Europe, Africa and Asia. We will discuss regimes of terror that range from the extreme right to the extreme left in the political spectrum. We will use country cases to illustrate politics of genocide in the 20th century. They are Germany, the former Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Rwanda, Vietnam and Community Kampuchea.
Politics of Regions: Political Economy of East Asia (POLS 780)
East Asia, which was regarded as the model for the fastest economic growth, is suddenly facing economic crisis. This course introduces students to basic issues related to the politics of economic development in East Asia. The class will examine different paradigms that try to explain the success as well as failures of economic development in a number of states and regions in East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore). Topics include economic policy formation, oligopolistic competition, corruption, labor and class relations, overseas investment, migration, consumerism, human rights, urbanization, regional economic cooperation, and globalization. Although this course is directed toward those who are planning to concentrate in the politics of economic development in East Asia, most themes to be discussed overlap with other sub–fields in social sciences (state/business relations, political sociology, history and Asian studies). The development of East Asia today moves so fast that overnight the change of the government or the fluctuations of new markets can render the most recent books out of the date. Thus the instructor will invite political leaders and entrepreneurs in Hawai'i and in East Asia to talk about real issues facing East Asia.