Vivek Chibber is an associate professor of sociology and director of graduate studies at New York University. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, his M.A. in sociology in 1991 from the University of Wisconsin and his B.A. in political science in 1987 from Northwestern University.

His recent publications include: "The Good Empire," The Boston Review, February/March 2005; "From Class Compromise to Class Accommodation: Labor's Incorporation into the Indian Political Economy", Social Movements and Poverty in India, Mary Katzenstein and Raka Ray eds. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005); "The Return of Imperialism to Social Science", Archives de Europeenes de Sociologie-The European Journal of Sociology, December, 2004; "Reviving the Developmental State? The Myth of the 'National Bourgeoisie'," Socialist Register 2005.

His research focuses on economic sociology; sociology of development; Marxian theory; political sociology; comparative-historical sociology; social theory.

Dr. Chibber's talk is the fifth seminar of the winter quarter South Asia Colloquium Series.

Professor Dittmer received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1971. His scholarly expertise is the study of contemporary China. He teaches courses on contemporary China, Northeast Asia, and the Pacific Rim.

His current research interests include a study of the impact of reform on Chinese communist authority, a survey of patterns of informal politics in East Asia, and a project on the China-Taiwan-US triangle in the context of East Asian regional politics. Professor Dittmer's recently published books and monographs include Sino-Soviet Normalization and Its International Implications (University of Washington Press, 1992), China's Quest for National Identity (with Samuel Kim, Cornell University Press, 1993), China Under Modernization (Westview Press, 1994), and South Asia's Nuclear Crisis (M. E. Sharpe, 2005.)

Dr. Dittmer's talk is the second seminar of the winter quarter South Asia Colloquium Series.

China once again is in the midst of a major reshuffling of leadership. The upcoming 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party will form a new Politburo and its Standing Committee. While the current top leaders, including Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, will most likely remain in power for the next term, a new generation of leaders, known as the "Fifth Generation," is poised to emerge in the national leadership.

Candidates to succeed Hu, Wen and other top leaders will become known within a year. Dr. Li will present his analysis of who the front-runners of the Fifth Generation are, how the selection of the possible successors reflects the changing nature of Chinese elite politics, in what aspects this rising generation of leaders differs from their predecessors, and how these differences will change the way in which China will be governed.

Cheng Li is the William R. Kenan Professor of Government at Hamilton College in New York and a visiting fellow at the newly-established John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

Dr. Li grew up in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. In 1985, he came to the United States where he received an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Princeton University. He is the author of Rediscovering China: Dynamics and Dilemmas of Reform, and Chinas Leaders: The New Generation, and the editor of the recent book, Bridging Minds Across the Pacific: The Sino-U.S. Educational Exchange 1978-2003. Dr. Li is also a columnist for the Stanford University journal, China Leadership Monitor.

Dr. Li has advised a wide range of U.S. government, education, research, business and not-for-profit organizations on work in China. Dr. Li is a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a trustee of the Institute of Current World Affairs, a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Congressional U.S.-China Working Group, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations' Task Force on U.S. policy toward China, a member of Committee of 100, and a member of the U.S. National Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.

This talk is part of the "China's Year of Decision" colloquium series sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies.

Paul Godwin's research focuses on Chinese security policy and defense modernization. His articles include "China's Defense Establishment: The Hard Lessons of Incomplete Modernization" and "The PLA's Leap into the 21st Century: Implications for the U.S." He is a frequent contributor to journals and edited volumes on China's military. In 1987 he was a visiting professor at t he Chinese People's Liberation Army National Defense University in Beijing. He received his Ph.D. in political science form University of Minnesota.

This talk is part of the "China's Year of Decision" colloquium series sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies.

Almost a decade has passed since the financial crisis in South Korea. At the time Korean banks, already under financial stress, were faced with bad loans stemming from bankruptcies in the corporate sector. To resolve the bad loan problem, the Korean government actively intervened in the financial sector. The policy of "shock therapy" worked to restructure failed or failing banks.

Myung-Koo Kang will discuss this "shock therapy" approach in Korea and look at this approach to financial restructuring in a broader comparative context. He will also explore the impact of Korea's restructuring efforts on financial intermediation and the consequences of rapid privatization on the Korean financial sector.

Myung-Koo Kang is a postdoctoral fellow of Shorenstein APARC. Kang is currently revising his dissertation for publication titled, "Growing out of the "Vortex": The Politics of Financial Restructuring in Japan and South Korea". His dissertation explores the reasons why, despite similar institutional legacies emphasizing economic development, South Korea and Japan have responded so differently to their respective banking crises. Kang received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006. He was a visiting scholar to the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Japan, in 2003-4. His research focuses on comparative political economy, international relations, public administration, and East Asia.