RACHEL E. STERN

• About
  

  I am a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University In July 2012, I'm delighted to say that I'll be moving back to California to join the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program at the University of California, Berkeley. 
  

  A book based on my dissertation is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2013. The working title is "In Safety's Shadow: Suing Polluters in China," although that will change as soon as I can come up with something better. My broader research interests include social activism, political control, judicial politics and the relationship between law and social change.

  Please feel free to get in touch, either personally or professionally.

  78 Mount Auburn Street

  Cambridge, MA 02138

  United States

  617-496-8504 (office)

  restern@fas.harvard.edu

• CV

  February 2012 | Download CV

  Current Position

  2009-2012

  Junior Fellow, Harvard University Society of Fellows

  Education

  2003-2009 University of California, Berkeley

  Ph.D. in Political Science, December 2009

  M.A. in Political Science, May 2004

  1997-2001
  Wellesley College
  B.A. in International Relations, Summa Cum Laude

  Book

  In Safety's Shadow: Suing Polluters in China, under contract at Cambridge University Press (final manuscript due June 1, 2012)

  Refereed Articles and Book Chapters

  “Amplifying Silence: Uncertainty and Control Parables in Contemporary China,” (with Jonathan Hassid) Comparative Political Studies 45:10 (October 2012).

  "Politics at the Boundary: Mixed Signals and the Chinese State" (with Kevin J. O'Brien). Modern China 38:2 (March 2012), pp. 175-199.

  "From Dispute to Decision: Suing Polluters in China," The China Quarterly 206 (June 2011), pp. 294-312.

  "On the Frontlines: Making Decisions in Chinese Civil Environmental Lawsuits," Law & Policy 32:1 (January 2010), pp. 79-103.

  "Studying Contention in Contemporary China," (with Kevin J. O'Brien) in Popular Protest in China (Harvard University Press: 2008).

  “Unpacking Adaptation: The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong,” Mobilization 10:3 (October 2005), pp. 421-439.

  “The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong: Theorizing the Local/Global Interface,” (with Sally Engle Merry) Current Anthropology 46:3 (June 2005), pp. 387-408. Reprinted in The Anthropology of Globalization (Blackwell Publishing: 2007).

  “Hong Kong Haze: Air Pollution as a Social Class Issue,” Asian Survey XLIII (September/October 2003), pp. 780-800.

  Other Articles, Reports and Policy Briefs

  China Governance Analysis and Recommendations for a USAID Governance Strategy for China (with Dali Yang and David Timberman). Prepared for the United States Agency for International Development, December 2010 (135 pp.).

  Toward Environmental Public Interest Litigation? Proposals for Legislative Change (Beijing: Natural Resource Defense Council, 2008) (14 pp.).

  Evaluation of China’s Energy Strategy Options (with Jonathan E. Sinton, Nathaniel T. Aden and Mark D. Levine) (Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2005) (30 pp).

  “One Country, Two Systems, One Smog: Cross-Boundary Air Pollution: Policy Issues for Hong Kong and Guangdong,” (with Lisa Hopkinson) China Environment Series 6 (2003), pp. 19-36.

  Addressing Cross-Boundary Air Pollution: A Comparative Case Study (Hong Kong: Civic Exchange, 2001) (24 pp).

  Selected Recent Presentations

  “Amplifying Silence: Uncertainty and Control Parables in Contemporary China,” University of Chicago Comparative Politics Workshop, February 22, 2012.

  "Politics at the Boundary: Mixed Signals and the Chinese State," Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, September 2, 2011.

  "Balancing GDP, Stability and Environmental Protection: China's New Environmental Courts," University of Technology Sydney, conference entitled "Preserving Stability in China," July 4, 2011.

  "Running on Hope: International Soft Support for Environmental Litigation in China," New England China Seminar, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, November 8, 2010.

  “Environmental Litigation in China: Mapping the Consequences of Political Ambivalence,” Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association, Chicago, May 28, 2010. Also presented at the Overseas Young Chinese Forum, Chicago, May 29, 2010.

  Grants, Awards and Fellowships

  2011
  Milton Fund, Harvard University

  2009
  Abigail Reynolds Hodgen Publication Fund, Manuscript Preparation Support, University of California, Berkeley

  2007-2009
  Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley

  2007-2008
  Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship

  2006-2009
  National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant

  2004-2007
  National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

  2006-2007
  Pacific Rim Research Program Mini-Grant

  2006-2007
  Liu Graduate Research Fellowship in Chinese Studies

  2003-2004
  Horton-Hallowell Fellowship for graduate study, Wellesley College

  2003-2004
  Academic year fellowship, the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley

  2002-2003
  Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Cornell University

  2001
  Best paper in International Relations and best paper in Asian Studies, Wellesley College

  Teaching Experience

  Spring 2009
  Visiting Lecturer, Theories of International Relations, Mills College

  Spring 2006
  Graduate Student Instructor, War!, Professor Ron Hassner, University of California, Berkeley

  Academic Affiliations

  11/2006 to 1/2008
  Visiting scholar, Qinghua University Law School, Beijing

  8/2006 to 11/2006
  Visiting scholar, Center for Chinese Legal Studies, Columbia University Law School, New York

  Additional Professional Training

  Summer 2008
  Summer Institute for Preparing Future Faculty, University of California, Berkeley

  January 2006
  Training Institute on Qualitative Research Methods, Arizona State University

  Summer 2004
  Inter-University Program, Intensive Chinese language program, Beijing

  2002-2003
  Cornell University
  Full-Year Area Studies Language Concentration in Mandarin Chinese

  Languages

  English, Mandarin Chinese

• Articles

  Refereed Articles and Book Chapters

  "Amplyfying Silence: Uncertainty and Control Parables in China," (with Jonathan Hassid). Comparative Political Studies (October 2012). Please email me for a copy.

  "Politics at the Boundary: Mixed Signals and the Chinese State" (with Kevin J. O'Brien). Modern China 38:2 (March 2012), pp. 175-199. download

  "From Dispute to Decision: Suing Polluters in China," China Quarterly 206 (June 2011), pp. 294-312. download

  "On the Frontlines: Making Decisions in Chinese Civil Environmental Lawsuits," Law & Policy 32:1 (January 2010), pp. 79-103. download (see a Wall Street Journal blog post about this article here)

  "Studying Contention in Contemporary China," (with Kevin J. O'Brien) in Popular Protest in China (Harvard University Press: 2008). download

  "Unpacking Adaptation: The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong,” Mobilization 10:3 (October 2005), pp. 421-439. download

  "The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong: Theorizing the Local/Global Interface,” (with Sally Engle Merry) Current Anthropology 46:3 (June 2005), pp. 387-408. download

  “Hong Kong Haze: Air Pollution as a Social Class Issue,” Asian Survey XLIII (September/October 2003), pp. 780-800. download

  Other Articles and Policy Briefs

  Evaluation of China’s Energy Strategy Options (with Jonathan E. Sinton, Nathaniel T. Aden and Mark D. Levine) (Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2005). download

  “One Country, Two Systems, One Smog: Cross-Boundary Air Pollution: Policy Issues for Hong Kong and Guangdong,” (with Lisa Hopkinson) China Environment Series 6 (2003), pp. 19-36. download

  Wild But Not Free: An Economic Valuation of the Benefits of Nature Conservation in Hong Kong (with Lisa Hopkinson) (Hong Kong: Civic Exchange, 2002). download

  Addressing Cross-Boundary Air Pollution: A Comparative Case Study (Hong Kong: Civic Exchange, 2001). download

• Book

  Forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2012

  Table of contents (download)

  Email me for individual chapters.

  In Safety’s Shadow: Suing Polluters in China illuminates Chinese environmental lawsuits and brings them to life. In a country known for tight political control and ineffectual courts, this book explores how litigation works: how judges make decisions, why lawyers take cases, how plaintiffs win allies and how international influence matters. People like Zhang Changjian, a village doctor who spent 17 years suing a local chemical plant, are bringing lawsuits and, at times, overcoming significant obstacles to win them.

  Conceptually, this book makes an important contribution to a growing literature on courts in authoritarian regimes. In the post-Mao era, China embarked on a historic project of legal construction with the belief that predictable, efficient dispute resolution could help attract foreign investment, divert blame for unpopular policies and make sure local officials follow national regulations. Yet authorities remain concerned that legal claims could snowball into broader political demands, especially if courts become more independent.

  Unlike earlier work that offers a top-down look at the costs and benefits of courts, this bookexamines the bottom-up response to political ambivalence over environmental litigation. Due to official concern about pollution and related social unrest, environmental cases enjoy a sliver of a political opening that makes them less risky than other rights-related cases. Environmental cases are variously undermined, ignored or encouraged, making them a first-rate window how conflicting state cues affect daily routines.

  Drawing on fifteen months of field research, including four case studies and over 130 interviews, In Safety’s Shadow shows judges, lawyers and international NGOs responding in two ways. Most often, mixed signals about the desirability of legal solutions lead to self-censorship. Judges protect polluters when higher ups demand it (Chapter 4), lawyers screen out politically sensitive cases (Chapter 5) and international NGOs gravitate toward uncontroversial programs (Chapter 6). In particular, control parables—my term for stories about transgression that invent (or reiterate) an understanding of why certain types of action are impossible—help keep environmental rights claims from spiraling into broader political activism.
  
  Yet mixed signals also leave creative leeway for bottom-up experimentation. In Safety’s Shadow showcases local experiments with environmental courts (chapter 3), innovative judges (chapter 4), morally motivated lawyers (chapter 5), international supporters (chapter 6) and policy entrepreneurs (chapter 7). By detailing these changes, the bookmaps a path between law and social change outside the democratic West. Even on tough terrain, in a place where law is typically seen as an extension of political control, high-level ambivalence over environmental litigation can crack open space for ad hoc innovations that probe the boundary of what is politically permissible. The Chinese Communist Party’s turn towards law, in short, is also changing China.

  Finally, can environmental lawsuits halt pollution or improve environmental quality? Policymakers, NGOs and environmentalists concerned about China’s mounting environmental problems will be drawn to the policy implications of the first English language book about the process, strategies and obstacles of suing polluters in China. In Safety’s Shadow explains why litigation is still a disappointingly weak tool for environmental protection and details what must change before courts become more central.

  Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

• Teaching

  For undergraduate students, I see political science as a way to help students learn to:  1) evaluate information; 2) express coherent, persuasive opinions, both verbally and in writing, and 3) identify a puzzling question and sketch an approach to answering it. While I want students to know about Bretton Woods, Abu Ghraib and other events that shape our world, my hope is to nurture thoughtful consumers of information who hold well-grounded opinions and stand ready to investigate a tough question. For graduate students, political science classes should help refine these skills while also mapping the state of the field. My goal is to leave graduate students with a strong sense of seminal texts, the cutting edge of research and the open questions that remain.

  For more information on my teaching, please see:

  • • Syllabus for Theories of International Relations, Mills College, Spring 2009 download
  • • My teaching dossier (including student evaluation): download

  If you are a former student who would like to request a letter of recommendation, please read my guidelines here.

• Links

  A selected tour of what's on my bookshelf and laptop, for those interested in reading more:

  Blogs on Chinese politics

  • East South North West: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm
  • China Digital Times: http://www.chinaditigaltimes.net
  • Global Voices Online: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/east-asia/
  • China Dialogue: www.chinadialogue.net/

  Books on China's environmental problems

  • Elizabeth Economy's The River Runs Black: http://tinyurl.com/3hnkja9
  • Andrew Mertha's China's Water Warriors: http://tinyurl.com/42zcjrj
  • Judith Shapiro's Mao's War Against Nature: http://tinyurl.com/3vk2feg
  • Bryan Tilt's The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: http://tinyurl.com/3cngzhc
  • Jonathan Watts' When a Billion Chinese Jump: http://tinyurl.com/3t2kpmx
  • Robert Weller's Discovering Nature: http://tinyurl.com/3t2kpmx

  Fun reads for travelers

  • Fiction: Yu Hua’s Chronicles of a Blood Merchant (trans: Andrew Jones): http://tinyurl.com/3oqkpel
  • History: Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China: http://tinyurl.com/3l23v63
  • Mystery: Qiu Xiaolong’s Death of a Red Heroine: http://tinyurl.com/3awv2ad
  • Travel writing: Peter Hessler’s River Town: http://tinyurl.com/3fp3g6

Last Updated: August 2011 | Website Design: Telegraph Designs