About Professor Chen

Cheng Chen is Associate Professor of Political Science.  She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003.  Her research and teaching interests include post-communist politics, nationalism and nation-building, democratization, Chinese politics, and comparative-historical methodology.  She is the author of The Prospects for Liberal Nationalism in Post-Leninist States (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2007).  In addition, she has published articles in refereed journals such as Communist and Post-Communist Studies, East European Politics and Societies, Europe-Asia Studies, Post-Soviet Affairs, and Problems of Post-Communism.  Currently, she is working on a new book project examining the search for regime ideology in post-communist China and Russia.

Selected Publications

• Cheng Chen and Rudra Sil, "Stretching Postcommunism: Diversity, Context and Comparative Historical Analysis," Post-Soviet Affairs 23:4 (2007), 275-301.
• Cheng Chen and Ji-Yong Lee, "Making Sense of North Korea: 'National Stalinism' in Comparative-Historical Perspective," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 40:4 (2007): 459-475.
• Cheng Chen, "Institutional Legitimacy of an Authoritarian State: China in the Mirror of Eastern Europe," Problems of Post-Communism 52:4 (July/August 2005): 3-13.
• Rudra Sil and Cheng Chen, "State Legitimacy and the (In)significance of Democracy in Post-Communist Russia," Europe-Asia Studies 56:3 (2004): 347-368.