An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chinese Studies at Harvard

An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowships have historically supported junior scholars in any discipline of Chinese studies. Postdoctoral fellows are chosen from a competitive selection process. An Wang Fellows spend one year at the Fairbank Center working on research for a book manuscript or articles. In addition, they deliver research presentations to the Fairbank Center community and mentor the Center’s graduate student associates.

Meet our current 2024-25 An Wang Postdoctoral Fellows!

The Fairbank Center is pleased to announce the competition for the 2025-26 An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowships. The information is below and we are now accepting applications!

2025-2026 An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowships in Chinese Studies

For academic year 2025-26 the Fairbank Center is offering two post-doctoral fellowships to support participants in an interdisciplinary research group that will focus on the timely theme of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Society in Global China. The research group will be led by Professor Ya-Wen Lei and Professor Moira Weigel (see bios below).  

This is an exciting collaborative research opportunity for junior scholars of contemporary Chinese society who study aspects of China’s AI development from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, media studies, history of science, political science, and Science and Technology Studies. Postdoctoral candidates with relevant research interests are encouraged to apply.  

The application deadline is January 10, 2025.  

Research Theme

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Society in Global China 
China has emerged as a central player in the global AI revolution that has transformed not only the technological landscape but also the socio-economic fabric of nations over the last decade. China’s “techno-developmental” approach combines state-led policies with private sector innovation and emphasizes the role of AI in economic restructuring and governance. This strategy is central to China’s goals both domestically and internationally. Key policies, like the “New Generation AI Development Plan,” place AI at the core of efforts to enhance sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and education, while also addressing broader economic challenges.

China’s AI initiatives have significant social and economic impacts domestically, affecting work, professions, and culture, while also reshaping global dynamics as Chinese firms expand AI-driven technologies internationally, notably through the Belt and Road Initiative. This expansion, however, faces geopolitical challenges, particularly with the U.S. and Europe over issues of data security and digital sovereignty. China’s moves to achieve self-sufficiency in AI hardware and software highlight the intricate interplay between technology, society, and politics in this era of technological competition.

Contextualizing AI within a broader historical framework provides valuable insights into how China’s past experiences with technological modernization and cultural exchange inform its current approach to AI development and deployment. This perspective helps explore how contemporary developments, particularly in language models, relate to China’s rich history of translingual practices and transculturation.

The 2025-25 An Wang research group aims to examine AI development, adoption, and impact as multidimensional, transnational processes shaped by historical precedents, China’s domestic evolution, and contemporary global dynamics. Potential research may pursue the following thematic areas of inquiry:

• AI Development and Global Diffusion: Exploring the dynamics of AI innovation, focusing on China’s domestic development, the role of private and public actors and their relationships, and how China’s specific techno-developmental context shapes the global AI landscape.   

• Adoption and Adaptation of AI in and Beyond China: Focusing on how AI tools are being adopted across industries in and beyond China. The comparison of Chinese AI models in different language and national contexts adds depth, touching on sociotechnical imaginaries, cross-border impacts, and adaptation challenges.  

• Historical Perspectives on AI Development: Offering an historical lens on the development of large language and text-to-image models, and contextualizing contemporary shifts within long-standing patterns of translation, translingual exchange, and linguistic governance. 

• Impact of AI on Work, Professions, and Organizations: Focusing on the specific, on-the-ground impacts of AI adoption in various professional fields, analyzing how automation and AI tools reshape labor practices and organizational structures in China and potentially other contexts where Chinese-developed AI is deployed.  

Addressing these themes and questions requires bringing together scholars with diverse methodological approaches and disciplinary perspectives. We welcome applications from postdoctoral candidates from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, media studies, history of science, political science, and Science and Technology Studies, who have research expertise and interests aligned with the above themes.  

Principal Investigators

The research group will engage with institutional resources at Harvard and in the local area, and will be led by two Principal Investigators:

Dr. Ya-Wen Lei, Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Dr. Lei’s research focuses on the relationship between technology, society, and the economy. She has published in leading sociological and interdisciplinary journals and is the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton University Press, 2018) and The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (Princeton University Press, 2023). The Gilded Cage has won the Robert K. Merton Book Award from the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Max Weber Book Award (Honorable Mention) from the ASA’s Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section, the Best Book Award from the ASA’s Communication, Information Technology, and Media Section, and the Asia/Transnational Book Award from ASA’s Asia and Asian America Section. Additionally, it received a Bronze Medal in International Business/Globalization from the Axiom Business Book Awards. She is currently working on the transplantation of semiconductor manufacturing from Taiwan to the US and the application of AI in the workplace in China.

Dr. Moira Weigel, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard. Dr. Weigel’s research focuses on media and communication technologies since the nineteenth century, drawing on sources in English, French, German, and Spanish, as well as Chinese. She is currently working on a monograph on transnational marketplace platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba. She is pursuing related questions on how LLMs and text-to-image models are or are not changing competition and cooperation along global supply chains, and how we can historicize these developments in relation to older forms of translation and transculturation as an AI and Society Fellow at Microsoft Research (2024-5).

Expectations

The one-year An Wang Fellowship period is from August 1, 2025, to July 31, 2026.  An Wang Fellows are expected to reside in the Greater Boston area for the duration of the fellowship.  

As part of the interdisciplinary research group, the primary responsibility of the An Wang postdoctoral fellows will be to conduct their proposed research project under the mentorship of Professor Lei and Professor Weigel. Using the balance of their available time, they will have the opportunity to collaborate on research and to participate in a range of activities to be decided upon by the group.  

Over the course of the 2025-2026 academic year, the An Wang postdoctoral fellows will have opportunities to share their research with a growing community of Harvard researchers working on contemporary China. Fellows will be expected to participate in the vibrant academic community at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.  

Total annual stipend for An Wang Postdoctoral Fellows: $67,600 over 12 months. The postdoctoral fellow position will be eligible for Harvard University’s subsidized comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and other benefits.  In addition, $3,000 in research funding for scholarly activities will be available to each fellow.  

The fellowships will be subject to all rules and regulations of Harvard University.

Qualifications

A strong working knowledge of Chinese and English is required.

A doctoral degree is required by one month prior to the start of the fellowship. Candidates must provide confirmation of successful completion of their terminal doctoral degree, in the form of a diploma or a certificate of completion from the degree-granting institution’s Registrar, by July 1, 2025, at the latest.  

Applicants may not be more than five years beyond the receipt of their doctoral degree at the start of the fellowship. Harvard University doctoral degree recipients are not eligible for this fellowship.

Applicants must notify the Fairbank Center of any changes to the information provided in their application that may impact eligibility. Failure to communicate such changes may result in disqualification.

How to Apply

To apply, you are required to submit an online application through https://academicpositions.harvard.edu

Direct link to the 2025-26 An Wang Fellowships application: https://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/14410

Application deadline: January 10, 2025

All application materials must be in English. Applicants are required to submit:
• CV
• Cover letter (1-2 pages) that briefly states your interest in the program, your academic background, and a summary of your proposed research project  
• Research proposal (no more than 5 pages, double-spaced)
• Writing sample (academic paper or dissertation chapter)  
• Names of two or three recommenders, with current email addresses. 

At least two and no more than three academic recommendation letters are required, to be submitted directly to the application portal by each recommender.

If you have not received your doctorate degree at the time of application, please ask your dissertation Advisor to submit the An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship Advisor Confirmation Form. This form must be completed by your advisor and emailed to fairbankcenter@fas.harvard.edu within two weeks of application submission.

Contact fairbankcenter@fas.harvard.edu if you have any questions regarding the application.

The fellowships will be subject to all rules and regulations of Harvard University.

Harvard is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, protected veteran status, disability, genetic information, military service, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or other protected status.