Facebook Twitter Google+ Flickr YouTube

Academics

Home > Skip Navigation LinksAcademics > Faculty Directory > Carolyn Hsu

Carolyn Hsu, Associate Professor of Sociology; Chair of Sociology and Anthropology

Colgate professor Carolyn HsuIn terms of work, I am currently working on two research projects.

The first examines the rise of NGOs in the People's Republic of China. NGOs are a new phenomenon in China -- they barely existed at all 20 years ago, but now there are thousands. In 2008, I spent six months in China conducting ethnographic research on seven different indigenous Chinese NGOs.

You can read a little bit about this research in an article I wrote for the Colgate Scene, autumn 2008, titled Serving the People. It describes new trends in charitable giving and volunteerism in China.

I have also written several academic articles on the topic: “Beyond Civil Society: An Organizational Perspective on State–NGO Relations in the People's Republic of China.” (2010) and "Rehabilitating Charity in China" (2008) both came out in the Journal of Civil Society

The second research project is based on the Colgate Campus Climate Survey. Working with my co-author, Professor Landon Reid, we surveyed the entire student body to examine how students' experiences of campus life differened by race, gender, socioeconomic class, and other factors. Our findings have led to two 200-page reports for the Colgate community.

In the winter of the 2011-2012 academic year I traveled to India with 26 other Colgate faculty members. Our mission was to confront questions of identity, culture, and knowledge across intellectual boundaries in order to support our instruction within Colgate's Core program. Read more about our experiences at our blog, Reflections from India.

In terms of my personal life, I am married to Christopher Henke, who is also a sociology professor here at Colgate. We have one daughter, Lin, born in 2001.

Download a copy of my CV, or see the information below.


Colgate professor Carolyn Hsu and family

Contact Information
Mail: 408 Alumni Hall
Office: Sociology & Anthropology
Phone: 315 2287083
Email: chsu@colgate.edu

Department Affiliation
Sociology & Anthropology Department

Title
Associate Professor of Sociology; Chair of Sociology and Anthropology

Teaching & Research

Professional Experience

2009 - Chair, Sociology and Anthropology Department, Colgate University
2007 -  Associate Professor of Sociology, Colgate University
2000 - 2007 Assistant Professor of Sociology, Colgate University
1999 - 2000 Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, Williams College

Degree

  • BA, Yale University 1991
  • MA, PhD, University of California, San Diego 1995, 2000

Research Specialities
Modern Chinese society; Institutions and organizations; NGOs; Globalization and global markets; Post-socialist development; Economic sociology; Social mobility and inequality; Narratives; Visual Sociology; Morality and religion.

Teaching Interests
Modern Chinese society; Globalization; Sociology of culture; Nationalism and citizenship; Chinese and Japanese culture and society; Globalization; Social inequality; East Asian culture, religion and ethics; Classical sociological theory; Qualitative field methods; Introduction to Sociology.

Teaching Experience

Associate Professor: Colgate University

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

  • Introduction to Sociology
  • Approaches to Social Analysis
  • Globalization and Everyday Life
  • Sociology of Nationalism
  • Senior Seminar: Issues in Contemporary Sociology and Anthropology

Visiting Assistant Professor: Williams College

Department of Anthropology and Sociology

  • Modern Chinese Society
  • Globalization and Everyday Life
  • Invitation to Sociology
  • Citizenship, Community and Culture
  • Religion and Culture in China and Japan

Publications
Carolyn Hsu's book, Creating Market Socialism book coverBook:

2007 Creating Market Socialism: How Ordinary People are Shaping Class and Status in China, Duke University Press.

Published articles:

2011 - “Even Further beyond Civil Society: The Rise of Internet-Oriented Chinese NGOs (Response to Kin-Man Chan and Li Zhang), ” Journal of Civil Society. Forthcoming.

2010 - “Beyond Civil Society: An Organizational Perspective on State–NGO Relations in the People's Republic of China.” Journal of Civil Society. 6 (3): 259 – 277

2010 - "Corruption or Social Capital?  Tact and the Performance of Guanxi in Market Socialist China,” (co-authored with Alan Smart) in Public Sector Corruption, Edited by Michael Johnston, Sage Publications

2008 - "Rehabilitating Charity in China: The Case of Project Hope and the Rise of Nonprofit Organizations". Journal of Civil Society. 4 (2): 81-96.

2008 - "The School in the City and the City in the School: Ideological Transformations in China." Visual Studies. 23 (1): 20-33

2007 - "Corruption or Social Capital? Tact and the Performance of Guanxi in Market Socialist China," (co-authored with Alan Smart) for Corruption and the Secret of Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective, edited by Monique Nuijten and Gerhard Anders. Ashgate. Pages 167-190.

2006 - "Cadres, Getihu, and Good Businesspeople: The Social Construction of Entrepreneurs in Early Post-Socialist China," Urban Anthropology, 35 (1): 1-38.

2006 - "Market Ventures, Moral Logics, and Ambiguity." The Sociological Quarterly, 47: 69-92.

2005 - "A Taste of Modernity: Working in a Western Restaurant in Market Socialist China," Ethnography, 6(4): 543-565.

2005 - "Capitalism Without Contracts Versus Capitalists Without Capitalism: Comparing the Influence of Chinese Guanxi and Russian Blat on Marketization." Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 38:309-327.

2001 - "Political Narratives and the Production of Legitimacy: The Case of Corruption in Post-Mao China." Qualitative Sociology, 24 (1): 25-54.

1996 - "Corruption and Morality in the People's Republic of China." Indiana East Asian Working Paper Series 8 1-26.

Reports:

2009 - Colgate Campus Life Study Report. Co-authored with Landon Reid, Dan Schult, Sarah Chabal, Jaime Waller and Abby Byrne. Colgate University.

2006 - Final Report of the Colgate University Campus Climate Survey. Co-authored with Landon Reid. Study Conducted by the Colgate University ALANA Affairs Committee, Spring, 2003.

Book reviews:

2012 - Mary Brown Bullock, The Oil Prince’s Legacy: Rockefeller Philanthropy in China, for The China Journal, 67: 203-4.

2008 - Amy Hanser, Service Encounters (Stanford University Press, 2008) for The China Journal, 63.

2007 - Patricia M. Thornton, Disciplining the State (Harvard University Press, 2007), for The China Quarterly, 191: 758-759.

2006 - Jie Tang: Managers and Mandarins in Contemporary China (Routledge, 2005), for The China Journal, 55:165-167.

2001 - Barbara Entwisle and Gail Henderson, eds. Re Drawing Boundaries: Work, Households, and Gender in China, for American Ethnologist, 28 (4): 942-4.

Conference Presentations:

2007 - “Corruption, Social Capital, and Reasonable Practice: The Role of Tact in the Performance of Guanxi in Market Socialist China,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.

2006 - “How Ordinary People Co create and Practice the Ideology of Suzhi (Quality) in Post Socialist China: The Case of Project Hope.” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA.

2006 - “Rehabilitating Charity” in China: The Case of Project Hope and the Rise of Non-Profit Organizations.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada.

2006 - “The School in the City and the City in the School: Ideological Transformations in China.” International Visual Sociology Association Annual Meeting, Urbino, Italy.

2005 - “Cadres, Getihu, and Good Businesspeople: The Social Construction of Entrepreneurs in a Early Post-Socialist China,” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA

2005 - Panel organizer, Guanxi and Capitalism: A Comparative Analysis of Favor-Exchange Practices in Asian Economies. Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. Also presented paper: “Capitalism Without Contracts Versus Capitalists Without Capitalism: Comparing the Influence of Chinese Guanxi and Russian Blat on Marketization”

2004 - “Cadres,” Getihu,” and Good Businesspeople”: The Social Construction of Entrepreneurs in a Early Post-Socialist China Society for East Asian Anthropology Annual Meeting, Berkeley, CA.

2004 - “What Guanxi Can Teach Us About Capitalism,” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

2003 - “My Husband Stays Home”: Transnational Entrepreneurship and Marriage Relations in Harbin, China,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

2002 - “Interpreting the New Business Class in Market Socialist China: The Narrative Construction of Getihu in Harbin,” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

2001 - “Narratives and New Institutions: The Role of Cultural Repertoires in the Construction of Market Socialism in China.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA.

2000 - “Political Narratives and the Production of Legitimacy: The Case of Corruption in Post-Mao China.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.

1999 - “Market Socialism and Daily Life: Searching for the Emerging Foundations of Legitimacy in the PRC.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago.

1999 - “Strategies for Dealing with Market Socialism on the Ground Level.” Pacific Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

1996 - “Corruption and Morality in the People's Republic of China.”American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, New York.

1995 - “Shifting Circles of Citizenship in China.” American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco.

Grants, Fellowships, and Honors

2007-08 Spencer Foundation Grant
2007-08 Colgate Research Council Major Grant
2005 Colgate Research Council Discretionary Grant
2004 Colgate Research Council Major Grant
2001-01 Colgate Research Council Discretionary Grant
1999 UCSD Departmental Dissertation Writing Fellowship
1998 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Travel Award
1997 Council on East Asian Studies FLAS Fellowship
1996 UCSD George Haydu Prize (For work in the study of culture)
1994-97 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship
1994/Summer Council on East Asian Studies FLAS Fellowship
1993-94 Regents Fellowship, UCSD

Service

Colgate University committees

2001-04, 2005 - 08
(elected three-year term)
ALANA Affairs Committee
2001 - 04, 2005-07
(elected three-year term)
Academic Affairs Board
2002 - 03
(elected three-year term)
Faculty Committee on Affirmative Action Oversight
2001 - Student Activities (Faculty advisor): Colgate Christian Fellowship

Professional Memberships

American Sociological Association
Section on Asia and Asia-America
Section on Economic Sociology

American Anthropological Association
Section on East Asian Anthropology

Association of Asian Studies

Foreign Language

Chinese (Mandarin) C fluent