The College of Arts & Sciences will celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the Cornell Levinson Program in China and Asia-Pacific Studies – and a new faculty director for the program — at an April 24 symposium on the Ithaca campus.

The event, set for 1:35-6:30 p.m. in Room 120 of the Physical Sciences Building, will feature a faculty panel focused on U.S.-China Relations; a conversation between Zachary Montague ‘13, a reporter for The New York Times, and Peter John Loewen, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts & Sciences; and a career panel with CAPS alumni. All of the events are free and open to the public.

The day’s schedule includes:

1:35 p.m.: Welcome and introductions by Loewen and Michael J. Zak ’75, member, Center for a New American Security and board of directors & partner emeritus, Charles River Ventures2 p.m.: Faculty panel featuring Patrizia McBride (moderator), Senior Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Programs and Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, Department of German Studies (A&S); Peter Katzenstein, the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Department of Government (A&S); Diana Fu, the new Levinson Program director; Xu Xin, interim director for the Levinson Program and adjunct associate professor, Department of Government; and Jason Oaks M.A. ‘13, who leads the China team at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.3:15 p.m.: “Higher Ed and International Partnerships,” a conversation between Loewen and Montague, who formerly covered the education department and education policy and now covers federal courts and the balance of power in the federal government4:15 p.m.: Allen Carlson, associate professor of government and former Levinson Program director, in conversation with Levinson program alums Randy Wan ’12, Strauss Cooperstein ’22, Shauna DeLorenzo ’19, Angela Pan’ 23 and Isaac Herzog ’23

The Brittany and Adam J. Levinson Program in China and Asia-Pacific Studies offers students the opportunity to study contemporary China through a set of courses on China's language, history, politics, economy, society and foreign relations. Students also take part in experiences both on-and-off campus, including three years in Ithaca, one optional semester in Washington D.C. and one required semester in Beijing.

Participants

Aaron Erlich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, where he is a member of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship and an Associate Member of the Centre on Population Dynamics. He is also a faculty research affiliate with NYU's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics. Much of Aaron’s research addresses information's role in developing democratic societies. His work also advances quantitative methods to measure the effect of information.

Regina Faranda is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence & Research. A career member of the Senior Executive Service, Faranda previously served as Director of INR’s Office of Opinion Research, Chief of the Europe and Eurasia Division, and social research analyst for Russia and Ukraine. Throughout her tenure in government, Faranda was dedicated to informing U.S. policy through quantitative social research and to giving people around the world a seat at the U.S. policy table.

Jordan Gans-Morse is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University. His research focuses on corruption, the rule of law, property rights, and political and economic transitions. He is the author of Property Rights in Post-Soviet Russia: Violence, Corruption, and Demand for Law (Cambridge). His articles have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, and World Development, and he has published commentaries in the Chicago Tribune, The Hill, The Moscow Times, US News & World Report, and The Washington Post.

Kimberly O'Haver is a program manager at the Open Society Foundation, where she coordinates of a group of international drug policy experts working toward progressive drug policy reform for Ukraine's EU Accession process. Her work on drug policy focuses on veterans and affected civilian populations experiencing severe, war-induced trauma and regularly engages veterans and veterans’ groups to understand substance use trends both post-deployment and on the frontlines.

Bryn Rosenfeld is an Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University and a co-Principal Investigator of the Russian Election Study. Her research interests focus on public opinion and voter behavior in nondemocratic systems, development and democratization, protest, post-communist politics, and survey methodology. Her research has been supported by the NSF and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, among other sources. She is a former editor of The Washington Post Monkey Cage Blog.

Charles Whitehead is the Myron C. Taylor Alumni Professor of Business Law at Cornell Law School and the Founding Director of the Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship Program at Cornell Tech. He specializes in the law relating to corporations and other business associations, securities regulation, mergers and acquisitions, and financial regulation. His current scholarship focuses on securities and financial regulation and corporate governance.

Workshop Schedule

9:00am. Coffee

9:15am. Opening Remarks

Bryn Rosenfeld (Cornell)

9:30am-11:15am. Panel: Research for Impact

Cristina Florea (Cornell), Moderator

Presentations:

Charles Whitehead (Cornell Law), “Corporate Governance Reform in Ukraine: Between State Design and Market Discipline”

Aaron Erlich (McGill), “The Past, Present, and Future of Public Opinion Survey Research in Ukraine: From Pen and Paper to Agentic AI (2015-2026)”

Jordan Gans-Morse (Northwestern), “Countering Authoritarian Censorship via Grassroots Communication Campaigns: Evidence from an Experimental Mega-Study in Wartime Russia”

Bryn Rosenfeld (Cornell), “Russian Public Opinion Spanning the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine: Evidence for Policy and Public Diplomacy”

11:30am-12:30pm. Catered Lunch

1:00pm-2:45pm. Roundtable. Connecting Research to Policy Advocacy and Activism: Challenges and Opportunities

Sophie Pinkham (Cornell), Moderator

Participants:

Regina Faranda (former Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. State Department, INR)

Kimberly O’Haver (Open Society Foundation)

Aaron Erlich (McGill)

Jordan Gans-Morse (Northwestern)

Bryn Rosenfeld (Cornell)

Join us for a talk by Southeast Asia Program Visiting Scholar, Aung Thura Ko Ko.

This talk will take place at Rockefeller Hall 374, Asian Studies Lounge. Lunch will be served.

For questions, contact seap@cornell.edu.

Abstract: Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the country has plunged into a deep political, economic, humanitarian, and security crisis. China’s engagement with post-coup Myanmar is multifaceted. While officially adhering to a policy of non-interference, Beijing has pursued a pragmatic approach to safeguard its interests, including investments under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), border security and access to the Indian Ocean. China has been maintaining ties with both the junta and select ethnic armed groups to ensure leverage across all fronts. Myanmar’s strategic value to China is further heightened by its role as a critical supplier of raw minerals including rare-earth and tin ore, both essential to high-technology and defense manufacturing. China’s cooperation with the military regime has deepened through new mechanisms, including the establishment of a joint security company to protect Chinese investments, as well as the deployment of a ceasefire monitoring team and border operations. At the same time, the China-Myanmar border has emerged as a major hub for cyber scam centers, many operated by transnational criminal networks and protected by regime-aligned border guard forces. China’s strategic intervention in post-coup Myanmar presents a complex mix of geopolitical ambition, economic necessity, and security entanglement. This makes Myanmar a critical case for understanding how Beijing engages with fragile states to advance its regional influence in the Indo-Pacific.

About the Speaker: Aung Thura Ko Ko is a visiting scholar at the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) for the spring semester. He was previously a research fellow at the Pacific Forum, a U.S. policy think tank based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and an affiliate scholar at the East-West Center from 2024 to 2026. Aung previously worked at the University of Oxford’s Global Security Programme, and his research focuses on wartime and postwar governance, China–Myanmar relations, and Indo-Pacific regional security issues. He has over 15 years of professional experience, including six years with USAID, and has worked with a range of international and local organizations across policy, governance, humanitarian & development assistance, and peacebuilding in Myanmar. Aung has been actively engaged in international advocacy efforts supporting Myanmar’s democracy movement since the 2021 military coup.

// Film Screening and Conversation //

The Culture Industry of War
(2013, dir. Hamed Yousefi, 27 min)

In the essay-film The Culture Industry of War, art historian and filmmaker Hamed Yousefi explores the role of images in Iran’s modern political culture. Focusing on the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), he argues that image-making was a central force behind the production of “an industry of martyrdom.” Other accounts of the war tend to focus on the centrality of religious iconography in the ideology of the Islamic Republic. This film, however, recenters the conversation around the modernity of the war's cultural industry, its use of technological modes of reproduction, and the adaption of avant-garde techniques of immediacy and spontaneity in war propaganda. The film examines the work of numerous painters, photographers, and graphic designers, including the practice of revolutionary filmmaker, Morteza Avini (1947–1993), who dedicated his life to documenting the War. By juxtaposing Avini's war documentaries with Abbas Kiarostami's Life and Nothing More (1992), the film suggests a new understanding of Kiarostami in his original social context otherwise neglected by scholars of Kiarostami's cinema.

Post-Screening Conversation with Hamed Yousefi (Near Eastern Studies) and Natasha Raheja (Anthropology and Performing & Media Arts)

Co-Sponsors: Department of Anthropology, Department of Performing & Media Arts, Nazaara Media Lab, German Studies, Institute for Comparative Modernities, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell Media Studies, Southwest Asia and North Africa Program, Department of Government, and the Public History Initiative.