Mark Frazier, Luce assistant professor of East Asian political economy and assistant professor of government at Lawrence University, has been named to the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ 2005-07 Public Intellectuals Program. He was one of 20 young (under age 45) national China scholars selected for the program.
Designed to nurture a new generation of China specialists who have the interest and potential to play significant roles as public intellectuals, the program looks to upgrade the quality of American public understanding of China by strengthening links among U.S. academics, policymakers and opinion leaders.
As a member of the program, Frazier will participate in a variety of activities over the course of the next two and one-half years, beginning with a five-day workshop Sept. 22-27 in Washington, D.C., in which he will meet with relevant U.S. government agencies and think tanks.
Frazier will have access to senior policymakers and experts in both the United States and China as well as emerging business and nonprofit sectors in China. During the course of the program, he will participate in a 10-day trip to China, help organize and participate in a one-day regional public event on China, develop at least one local public education program and either participate in a National Committee sponsored conference or serve as scholar-escort for a National Committee delegation in the United States or China.
“It’s a tremendous honor to have been selected for this program,” said Frazier, who earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. “The younger generation of China scholars in the United States, myself included, needs to be more engaged in the national debate over the emergence of China as a global power. I look forward to bringing my own views to that discussion and to organizing events here in the Fox Valley that will further our understanding of contemporary China.”
Frazier, who joined the Lawrence faculty in 2001, is the author of the book “The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution, and Labor Management” (Cambridge University Press, 2002), which explores labor practices in state-owned enterprises before and after the 1949 Chinese revolution. He spent six months during the 2004-05 academic year in Beijing and Shanghai as a Fulbright Research Fellow, conducting social surveys and interviews on how citizens and officials have responded to Chinese pension reforms.
A one-time staff writer for Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, where he reported on lobbying and labor practices in Congress, Frazier serves as a senior advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Based in New York City, the National Committee on United States-China Relations promotes understanding and cooperation between the United States and greater China in the belief that sound and productive Sino-American relations serve vital American and world interests.
