phd political science nus

NUS Political Science

Graduate Conference 2021

The Panellists

Sam Downes is a Masters of Public Administration student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously, he worked in the Cabinet Office amongst other positions in and around British government over the last six years. His research interests include the role of public administration in citizen participation, public sector accountability, comparative public administration and how political theory applies to public administration.

Brian Charles is a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. He recently graduated from NUS with a Master of Social Sciences in November 2020. His M.A. thesis was a genealogical analysis of the term ‘populism’ as a concept in the academic literature spanning 1890 to 2020. His research interests include political theory, intellectual history, history of ideas, philosophy, sociology of knowledge and political psychology.

Assel Mussagulova is a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore pursuing a public policy and global affairs track. Her research focus is on human resource management and organizational behavior in the public sector, bureaucratic institutions, especially in the post-communist context. Previously, Assel worked as a civil servant in the area of HR management in Kazakhstan, and as a research associate at the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) in Singapore.

Isaac graduated with a Masters in Asian Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in 2020, and has a Bachelor's in Political Science from the National University of Singapore. His research interests lie in the state-society relations of Southeast Asian countries, the politics of authoritarian regimes, and populism. He currently works as a security specialist at a global security assistance provider.

Soyoung is a PhD student at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Her current research interests are Japanese security policy and strategic culture.

Barbora Valockova is a PhD candidate in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme of the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research focuses on international political economy, international relations, ASEAN and East Asia. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as an Asia-Pacific infrastructure analyst and a trainee at the European Commission.

Pradeep is a Masters candidate in the Political Science Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include political psychology, securitization, social theory, and international relations. Currently, he is developing a study that examines how cognitive biases are involved in the formation of public perceptions of security.

Bailey Marsheck is a graduate student at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where he is currently pursuing an M.A. in China Studies (Politics and International Relations). His research interests lie at the intersection of IR and public opinion, primarily focusing on the U.S.-China relationship. He previous graduated with a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Say Jye is an aspiring academic planning to work at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and history. He is presently completing an MSc in Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He graduated with Highest Distinction from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in January 2020, majoring in Political Science with a minor in History.

About the Conference

The NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2021 seeks to provide a platform for graduate students to present their research on ongoing projects, including theses, and to network. It is an opportunity for aspiring scholars to experience an academic event and to share their work with peers in a supportive and stimulating environment. The conference will be held online.

The conference will be organised around panels composed of 3 to 4 papers. Participants can take part in the capacity of presenters, chairs, and/or discussants in panels. There is no conference or registration fee. Participants are expected to attend the entire conference.

The conference is now seeking submissions of abstracts for papers from all subfields of Political Science. Papers at different stages of progress are welcome.

Format of the conference Papers will be organised around common topics. Each panel will have 1 chair, 3-4 panellists and discussants.

Key dates ​

December 22, 2020: Deadline for abstract submission

February 2, 2021: Deadline to submit papers

February 23, 2021: NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2021

Submission of abstracts

Submissions should include a 400-word abstract, four keywords, and an academic CV.

We look forward to your submission.

For queries, please check out our FAQs or contact us .

Abstract Submission

Deadline for abstract submission: December 22, 2020 Notification for the outcome of submission: Early January, 2021 Deadline for paper submission: February 9, 2021

Your content has been submitted

Get in Touch 

Organisers .

The conference is run independently by the organisers, with the support of the NUS Department of Political Science.

Jesslene Lee

Nitha arumugam.

Publicity Director

Ang Jing Wei

Communications Director

©2020 NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2020

Assistant Professor

National university of singapore.

I am an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy , National University of Singapore . My research focuses on business-government relations, bureaucracy, good governance, and authoritarian politics , with a particular interest in China. My work has been published and is forthcoming in the British Journal of Political Science , Journal of Politics , Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , The China Quarterly , and other journals.

I am the recipient of the Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Comparative Politics Paper from the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. I earned my PhD in Political Science from Duke University . Prior to Duke, I obtained my bachelor’s degree from Fudan University and completed my MPhil at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology . Before joining NUS, I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Leitner Program of Political Economy, MacMillan Center, Yale University .

You can contact me via email at [email protected] .

Peer-reviewed Articles

“Subsidies for Sale: Post-government Career Concern, Revolving-Door Channels, and Public Resource Allocation in China." Journal of Politics , 2024. link

• Winner of Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Comparative Politics Paper at 2023 Midwest Political Science Association

“Markets Under Mao: The Persistence of Market Activity in Maoist China." With Adam Frost. The China Quarterly , 2023. link

“The Decline of Factions: The Impact of Purge on Political Appointments in China." With Melanie Manion. British Journal of Political Science , 2023. link

“Public Investment As Downward Benefit Distribution: Theory and Evidence from China’s Public-Private Partnership Programs." With Daniel Z. Li and Qi Zhang. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , 2023. link

“Judicial Recentralization as Political Control: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Judicial Leader Rotation in China." With Zeyuan Wang. Social Science Quarterly , 2023. link

“Connections as Liabilities: The Cost of the Politics-Business Revolving Door in China." British Journal of Political Science , 2022. link

“Within Party Mobility and Economic Performance in Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from China." With Arthur Zeyang Yu. Party Politics . 2022. link

“The Last Strike: Age, Career Incentives and Taxation in China.” With Arthur Zeyang Yu. Studies in Comparative International Development . 2022. link

Edited Volume

“An Introduction to Procedural Rule in China’s Provincial People’s Congress." Chinese Law & Government , Vol.49 No.1, (2017): 1-4. link

Working Papers

“Favor With Fear: The Distributional Effect of Political Risk on Government Procurement in China." With Songrui Liu. link

“A Privilege of the Rich? A Duality of Unequal Government Responsiveness in Urban China." With Jiawei Fu and Haibin Yan. link

Book Project

Red Quid Pro Quo: The Political-Business Revolving Door in China

Scholars contend that in a weak institutional context, firms enter the political marketplace primarily through bribery or entrepreneurs running for public office. My dissertation challenges this conventional understanding by arguing that revolving-door channels have become a prevalent means of rent-seeking when within-government career opportunities are rare for public officials and the private sector is profitable. This dissertation proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of revolving-door officials in authoritarian regimes and tests this framework through a rigorous inquiry of firms in China. The three papers that constitute this work analyze the pattern, formation, and economic outcome of hiring revolving-door officials. I show the distortionary impact of post-government career concerns on public resource allocation, a mixed revolving-door recruitment strategy adopted by firms seeking both political power and regulatory expertise, and the salient signaling effect of revolving-door connections on financial investors.

Chinese Revolving-Door Officials Database

The Chinese Revolving-Door Officials Database contains extensive demographic and career information of over 15,000 government officials who serve on the board of all Chinese publicly listed firms since the 2000s. The database is consist of three parts:

• compensation information for revolving-door officials, including salary, allowance, and stock shares;
• standardized career experience information;
• visualization of their political network.

The database is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (administered by American Political Science Association), the Department of Political Science at Duke University and Duke Asian Pacific Studies Institute.

Chinese Public-Private Partnership Database

The Chinese Public-Private Partnership Database provides detailed information of all Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects contracted by various levels of governments in China from 2013. The database includes:

• contract details of public-private partnership projects
• visualization of public-private partnership networks

Political Economy

Business and Politics, Instructor, National University of Singapore & Yale University. Syllabus

Political Economy of China, Instructor, Yale University. Syllabus

Prisoner’s Dilemma and Distributive Justice, Teaching Assistant, Duke University.

Global Corruption, Teaching Assistant, Duke University.

World of Politics, Teaching Assistant, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Introduction to Economics, Teaching Assistant, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Quantative Methods

Probability and Regression*, Lab Instructor and TA, Duke University. Handouts and Code

Quantitative Analysis in Social Science*, Lab Instructor and TA, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Handouts and Code

Data Science

• Unifying Data Science*, Lab Instructor and TA, Duke University. Handouts and Code

* Graduate-level

Political Science: Theses

• Citing and Managing References
• Research / Writing Guides
• Open Edu Resources (OER)

NUS Honours Year & pre-2003 Masters and Ph.D Theses (In Print)

• Theses from NUS Political Science Department Selected academic exercises (honours year theses) and Masters & PhD theses, received from the Political Science department are kept at the library's Closed Stacks under the call number JA36. Use the catalogue to search or click on the title link above. For Masters and PhD theses submitted after 2003, please use ScholarBank below to search.
• Scholarbank@NUS NUS Honors thesis and FYPs from 2017 are now stored on Scholarbank@NUS, the institutional repository of NUS

NUS post-2003 Masters and Ph.D Theses Online

ScholarBank@NUS is the institutional repository of National University of Singapore. This repository collects and preserves the scholarly output of NUS and makes it accessible worldwide. Also included in the search is the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) which includes Master’s (by Research) and Ph.D students deposited with the Registrar’s Office

Non-NUS Theses

Offers more than 1.7 million full-text dissertations in the humanities, social sciences, technology and more. Full-text available. For help on searching in this database, see this guide: https://proquest.libguides.com/pqdt

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Assistant Professor (Presidential Young Professor (PYP) )

Job Details

The Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore invites applications for the tenure-track position of Presidential Young Professor (PYP) at the rank of Assistant Professor, to commence in 2025. Applications are invited from all major subfields of political science including, but not limited to, comparative politics, international relations, and public policy. We are especially interested in candidates with an Asia-focused research programme.

The NUS Presidential Young Professorship and NUS Presidential Fellowship Awards aim to attract, support, and empower the brightest and most promising young academics in the early stage of their careers so that they can develop themselves into world-class scholars. As a young academic at NUS, you will have the opportunity to work alongside a diverse and dynamic community of scholars and students, to pursue excellence and innovation with a positive societal impact. Successful PYP candidates are awarded a start-up grant package of either SGD 250,000 or SGD 750,000, depending on the demands of their research program. Successful PYP candidates are also granted an award of an additional SGD 250,000 for discretionary spending.

The NUS Department of Political Science is one of the leading global programs, with a vibrant research culture and located in a cosmopolitan hub. It is one of 15 departments within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Southeast and East Asia are geographical areas of departmental strength, but our 20+ faculty members have research interests which range across the subfields of political theory, international relations, comparative politics, and governance and public policy. In addition, the world-renowned Asia Research Institute (ARI) at NUS engages political scientists as part of its interdisciplinary community, as do our many area studies departments. Our department is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion as integral values in our strategic development. We also offer a competitive remuneration package, including housing and relocation benefits for eligible overseas candidates. The typical teaching load is 2:1 (one or two courses per semester, totaling three per academic year).

Interested applicants are invited to apply directly at our NUS Career Portal https://careers.nus.edu.sg/job-invite/25147/ . Application dossiers should include:

• A brief cover letter explaining why the position at NUS is of interest and discusses the ambition of your research program A comprehensive CV with a complete list of publications, awards, grants, and courses taught A research statement with a three year research plan Two signature publications with the applicant as the lead author Letters from at least three referees. If the applicant is two or more years post-PhD, the referees should not be limited to supervisors. The referees should compare the research performance of the applicant to specific individuals at equivalent and top institutions and/or programs. Please send all referee letters directly to [email protected] .

Review of applications will begin on 29 July 2024 and continue until an appointment is made. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified. If there are any questions, please email the search committee at [email protected] .

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The PhD program prepares students for careers in college teaching, as well as careers in other occupations related to service in the public or private sectors.

Campus Code

Knoxville Campus

Admissions Standards/Procedures

• Submit online application to the Office of Graduate Admissions .
• Three recommendation forms must be submitted, at least two of which must be completed by instructors at the institution most recently attended. In addition, scores on the general portion of the Graduate Record Examination must be submitted.
• Applicants for admission to the program should normally have completed a master’s degree in political science or a related field with a 3.50 GPA and have earned a composite score of at least 302 on the verbal and quantitative parts of the Graduate Record Examination.

Credit Hours Required

A minimum of 72 graduate hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, exclusive of the 6 credit hours for a master’s thesis.

Required Courses

• POLS 600 - Doctoral Research and Dissertation (24 credit hours)
• A minimum of 48 of the 72 credit hours in courses must be graded A-F.
• At least 60 of the 72 credit hours must be in political science (POLS) courses. At least 60 credit hours in political science (POLS) must be in courses at the 500- and 600-levels At least 6 credit hours must be earned in political science courses numbered above 600.
• POLS 510 - Scope and Methods in Political Science
• POLS 511 - Research Design
• POLS 513 - Quantitative Political Analysis
• Completion of at least three courses or seminars (9 credit hours) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the field (see list below) in which the students take the comprehensive examination. Consult with the major professor and/or guidance committee to determine the field (see list below) for the comprehensive examination.
• Completion of at least two courses or seminars at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in advanced methodology. Chosen in consultation with the major professor and/or guidance committee.
• A student may opt to take a minor in Methodology, which entails completing three courses or seminars at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in advanced methodology, and passing an exam. Students that undertake a minor in Methodology are not required to take a comprehensive exam in a second substantive field, unless they choose to do so.
• A student for whom a language other than English is necessary for their dissertation research may, with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies, substitute demonstrated proficiency in that language for one of the advanced methods courses.

Non-Course Requirements

• Pass a written comprehensive examination in two broad fields of political science (American government and politics; public administration; comparative government and politics; or international relations)
• Pass a final oral examination on the dissertation.

Concurrent Master’s Degree

A student may opt to receive a Concurrent Master’s Degree once they have completed 30 hours of graduate coursework towards the PhD and passed their two written comprehensive examinations. The form “ Request for Concurrent Master’s Degree ” must be completed and approved to earn the concurrent master’s degree.

Benjamin A. Schupmann, "Democracy Despite Itself: Liberal Constitutionalism and Militant Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2024‪)‬ New Books in Political Science

• Social Sciences

Seeking a second term as US president in November, Donald Trump joins a roster of politicians whose declared aim is to use legal means to bend democracy to their will and in their interests. The system withstood his first term. In Venezuela, Ecuador, Turkey, and Hungary, the systems didn’t, and they are undergoing stress tests in Israel, Slovakia, and Georgia. In Venezuela, Turkey and Hungary, elections still happen and parliaments, courts, and media are intact but checks and balances have been steadily eroded as one party bids for sustained majority rule. Since the turn of the millennium, 80% of cases of democratic retreat have taken this form rather than through violence. Worst of all, “illiberal democracy” is popular. Between 2016 and 2020, Trump added 11 million votes. In 2022, after 12 consecutive years in power, Hungary’s ruling party extended its support. Recent polls show that a third of Americans would prefer a strong unelected leader to a weak elected one while a fifth of French under-35s are indifferent to the prospect of an end to democracy. In Democracy Despite Itself: Liberal Constitutionalism and Militant Democracy (OUP Press, 2024) Benjamin Schupmann addresses this democratic internal rot and how to defend against it. "Democratic cannibalism is a perennial problem,” he writes. “It is a question of when, not if, popular anti-democratic movements will erupt from within and try to use legal revolutionary methods to devour democracy. Democratic constitution should be designed to provide democrats with the means to defend it and themselves". Benjamin Schupmann is an Assistant Professor at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He got his PhD at Columbia University and then taught at Duke Kunshan University and the National University of Singapore. Democracy Despite Itself is his second book. His first – Carl Schmitt's State and Constitutional Theory – was published in 2017. *The author's book recommendations are Sovereignty Across Generations: Constituent Power and Political Liberalism by Alessandro Ferrara (OUP Oxford, 2023) and Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity by Hartmut Rosa (Columbia University Press, 2013).  Tim Gwynn Jones is an economic and political-risk analyst at Medley Advisors, who also writes the twenty4two newsletter on Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

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