John Wagner Givens
Associate Professor
Spelman College, Department of International Studies
350 Spelman Lane, SW
Atlanta, GA 30314
E-mail:
JohnGivens@Spelman.edu
Education
Doctorate of Philosophy in Politics, University of Oxford, 2013
Masters of Arts in Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2007
Bachelor’s in the Science of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 2003
Postdoctoral Positions
Teaching and Research Fellow, Modern Languages, Carnegie Melon University, 2016
Center for Asian Democracy, University of Louisville, 2012-2014
Journal and Law Review Articles, Book Chapters, and Monographs
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"Teaching Across the Straits: Asian Values and Human Rights" The Geography Teacher, forthcoming.
“Taiwan, the Almost Invisible Not Quite Country” China Currents, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2023.
“Policy Contagion During A Pandemic” (with Evan Mistur and Dan Matisoff) Vol. 40, No. 1, 2023: 36-62.
“Tiananmen Squared? Doubling Down on Taiwan’s Status Quo” China Currents, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2023.
"Helping China Learn the Putin Lesson” China Currents, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2022
"Taiwan is Not Ukraine; it is its Opposite" Global Policy Journal, 13 April 2022.
"China Ostrichism: Why Didn’t the World Prepare for China’s Rise?" China Currents, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2022
“Leaning In or All in the Family? Gender Equality, Dynastic Legacies, and Female Leaders” (with Charity Butcher and Tracy Mages), under revision.
“Is the World Ready for China Risen?” China Currents, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2022.
“From Power Balancing to a Dominant Faction in Xi Jinping’s China” (with Eun Choi and Andrew W. MacDonald), China Quarterly, Vol. 248, No. 1, 2021: 935.
“The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Nationalist Emulation During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (with Evan Mistur) Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2020.
“Smarter Cities or Bigger Brother? How the Race for Smart Cities Could Determine the Future of China, Democracy, and Privacy” (with Debra Lam) Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 47, No. 4, 2020: 829.
“On Their Best Behavior? Foreign Plaintiffs in Chinese Administrative Litigation” Open Judicial Politics: An Empirical Reader. Oregon State University Press, 2020.
“Justice Online? Lawyers and Legal Advice Websites in the People’s Republic of China” Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2019.
“Squeezing the Same Old Stone: Suing the Rural Chinese State and the Shift from Tax Reform to Land Seizures” (with Andrew W. MacDonald) China Currents, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2018.
“Small and Smart: Why and How Smart City Solutions Can and Should be Adapted to the Unique Needs of Smaller Cities” (with Debra Lam) New Global Studies, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2018: 21–36.
Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe 1958-62: Volume 63, The Macat Library, 2017.
“Strategic Censorship in a Hybrid Authoritarian Regime? Differential Bias in Malaysia’s Online and Print Media” (with Jason Abbott) Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2015: 455-478.
“Sleeping with Dragons? Politically Embedded Lawyers Suing the Chinese State” Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2014.
“New Social Media and (Electronic) Democratization in East and Southeast Asia: China and Malaysia Compared” (with Jason Abbott and Andrew MacDonald) Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2013.
“The Beijing Consensus is Neither: China as a Non-Ideological Challenge to International Norms” St Antony’s International Review Vol. 6, No. 2, 2011: 10–25.
Public Scholarship and Media Appearances
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Interviewed by the LA Times: “On global stage, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Taiwanese winner says the word China hates” May 2024.
"Taiwan is Not Ukraine; it is its Opposite" Global Policy, 2022.
“The Measure of a Country: America’s Wonkiest Competition with China” (with William Morrisey) War on the Rocks, 2020.
Interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting: “‘Don’t Invent Any Viruses’: Atlanta-Area Asian Students Face Rise In Hate Speech”
Interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting: “KSU Professor: Loeffler 'Attila The Hun' Political Ad Is Historically Inaccurate”
Interviewed by Academic Times: “Countries with nationalist leaders ‘emulated’ one another’s COVID-19 response” by Covey Eonyak Son
“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto: Humans Negotiating Autonomous Vehicles Is the New Drivers Ed” Newsweek Magazine (with Debra Lam)
“A Comparative Analysis of Online and Print Media During the 2013 Malaysian General Election: A Research Note” Berita Newsletter, Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei Studies Group Association for Asian Studies, November 2014 (with Jason Abbot)
Huffington Post Blog on Chinese law, politics, and society
“The Direction of China’s Legal Reform” China Brief (The Jamestown Foundation), March 2014
“Small Details Make For Big Injustices: Re-Education Through Labour and Administrative Litigation” Oxpol: University of Oxford Politics Blog, June 2013
Interview "Urbanization in China" for Chinese Central Television News, March 2013
“Why Google Should Stay in China” Good Magazine, January 2010
Invited Talks and Presentations
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"The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests in Context" Rotary Club of Marietta, Marietta, Georgia, August 2022
"Begging the Environmental Question" Northeast Corridor Chinese Law Workshop, Washington, DC, July 2022
"Smarter Cities or Bigger Brother? How the Race for Smart Cities Could Determine the Future of China, Democracy, and Privacy"
HBCU-Georgia Tech Transport Researcher Forum, Atlanta Georgia, May 2022
"Is the World Ready for China Risen?" China Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, December 2021
“Leadership Promotion in Xi’s China?” China Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, August 2020
"Smart Cities and Urban Innovation in Asia," Asia Business Conference, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA, March 2020
"Protected by Technology or Law? China, Liberal Democracies, and Smart Cities Skeptics" Cooper-Walsh Colloquium, Fordham University School of Law, New York City, NY, October 2019
"One Platform Four Legal Systems: How Legal Advice Websites link Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Mainland China," Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai, China, May 2019
“Digital Justice Delivery? Lawyers and Legal Advice Websites in the People’s Republic of China” Wisconsin International Law Journal’s Annual Symposium, University of Wisconsin, April 2019
“Can Legal Advice Websites Facilitate Challenges to the Chinese State?” China Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, August 2017
“关于人权律师的域外理论与实践 ［Global Human Rights Lawyering in Theory and Practice]” University of Hunan Law School, China, November 2014
“The Beijing Consensus is Neither: Is a Rising China Really Trying to Challenge the Washington Consensus?” Louisville Committee on Foreign Relations, February 2014
“Tax Reforms, Land Seizures, and Protests in Rural China” University of Pittsburgh, February 2014
“Suing Dragons? Taking the Chinese State to Court” Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business, University of Indiana, November 2013
“Sampling: Studying the Chinese State More Systematically” Understanding Contemporary China: Glancing Back and Looking Forward, Oxford Contemporary China Studies Program, University of Oxford, July 2012
“Sleeping with Dragons? Politically Embedded Lawyers Suing the Chinese State” Wisconsin International Law Review Symposium, University of Wisconsin, Madison; also: Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, June 2012
“法律在美国解决社会纠纷中所扮演的角色 [The Role of Law in Resolving Social Problems in the US]” Training Talk for Chinese Judges, Police, and Prosecutors, Hunan University, December 2010
“Roundtable on Asian Cause Lawyers” Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, June 2011
“美国遗产规划市场的简介 [An Introduction to the US market for Estate Planning]” & “Perceptions of China in the Western Media” Gansu Zhengtianhe Law Firm, May 2010
Grants, Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Summer 2023: Fulbright Seminars Abroad Program
2022: Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Early Career Award
Summer 2018 & 2020-2021: Graduate Research Assistant Competitive Stipend, Kennesaw State University
2011-2012: Department of Politics and International Relations Studentship, University of Oxford
2011-2012: Research Award, Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business, Indiana University
2010-2011: Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2007-2011: Research Grant, Leverhulme Trust
2007-2010: Clarendon Fund Scholarship, University of Oxford
2007-2010: Contemporary China Studies Studentship, University of Oxford
2005: Institute of East Asian Studies Language Grant, University of California, Berkeley
2002-2003: Undergraduate Research Opportunity Fellowship, Georgetown University
Teaching Experience
2017-Present: Kennesaw State University
American Government in a Comparative Perspective, Politics of East Asia, International Law and Organization (graduate and undergraduate), International Political Economy, Understanding Asia, Global Issues
2016: Carnegie Mellon University
Topics in Chinese History: The Politics, Foreign Policy, and Economics of China's Rise
2014-2016: University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Chinese Legal Institutions for the US Lawyer
2015: Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
China in the World: The Politics, Foreign Policy, and Economics of China's Rise
2011-2012: University of the West of England
China’s Relations with the World; Business in Contemporary China; Chinese Culture and Social Identity
2009, 2011: Department of Politics, University of Oxford
Government and Politics of China, Research Methods for Comparative Government
Professional Service
Conference Co-Organizer, The Everyday Digital Politics of China, University of Pittsburgh, October 2016
Conference Co-Organizer, Law and the Legal Profession in China, University of Pittsburgh, February 2015
Reviewer: Law & Social Inquiry; Comparative Political Systems; Contemporary Politics; Problems of Post-Communism; Law & Society Review; CITY Journal; Environment and Planning D: Society and Space; Macat; Online Information Review; University of North Georgia Press
Asian Studies MA Thesis Committee Member, University of California, Berkeley, 2013-2014
Asian Studies Seminar Coordinator, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2006-Spring 2007
Related Work Experience
Expert Witness, Criminal and Immigration Court, 2018 – present
Senior Research Associate, The Rights Practice, London, United Kingdom, 2011 – 2012
Project Assistant for International Initiatives, Georgetown University, 2004 – 2005
Manager for International Educational Programs, International Seminar Design, Washington, DC, 2003 – 2004
Languages and Skills
English, Mandarin, Spanish
Microsoft Office, STATA & R statistical software, social media, Basic HTML
Traditional Irish and American Music: Mandolin, Tenor Banjo, Bass, Vocals