Hello! My name is Junius Brown (rhymes with “Julius”), and I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Economy (4-year) at Duke Kunshan University, a small liberal arts college in China. Before that, I was a PhD student in the Travers Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in May 2024 with Kevin O’Brien as my dissertation chair.

My three-part dissertation explored the way in which Chinese citizens and government officials interact on online help forums like the Message Board for Leaders. In particular, I focused on how letter-writers put on performative displays of citizenship in order to appeal to local officials, and how local officials respond to their requests. My published work appears in Asian Survey and The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Citizenship.

I highly value teaching as a core part of my academic contribution. In 2021 I received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award from UC Berkeley’s Teaching and Resource Center, and since arriving at DKU I completed the Learning Innovation Fellowship and the First-Year Faculty Colloquium hosted by our Center for Teaching and Learning. I currently teach International Development, International Political Economy, Political Economy of Institutions, and Common Core 1: China in the World. You can find a detailed list of the courses I have taught here, and a summary of my course evaluations here.

I arrived at DKU in November 2024 and I have been living and working here ever since. I tend to drop by Shanghai every now and then, so if you’re in the area, let me know and I’d be happy to grab tea or coffee. Alternatively, if you also work on China and you’d like to visit DKU to give a talk, our Center for the Study of Contemporary China would be happy to host you.