Assistant Professor Zhenhuan (Reed) Lei has taken a position with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China effective this academic year. Lei is now an associate professor of political science at their School of International and Public Affairs.
Lei joined La Follette in 2020 as an assistant professor after earning his Ph.D. from New York University that year in political science. At UW-Madison, he held a joint appointment between La Follette and the Department of Political Science. From 2022 to 2023, Lei was a visiting scholar at Peking University.
His research focuses on China through a lens of comparative political economy. He is currently working on a book manuscript that studies how different models of government accountability and political career incentives in China and the United States lead to diverging investment strategies in transportation infrastructure.
In his short career, Lei established himself as an accomplished scholar. His research has been published or is forthcoming in Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of Comparative Economics, the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, the Journal of Politics, and Studies in Comparative International Development.
Lei was also a dedicated and well-liked educator for La Follette, teaching Public Affairs 974 China’s Policymaking and Global Influence at the graduate level and Public Affairs 380 Analytic Tools for Public Policy at the undergraduate level.
“I am grateful for Reed’s many contributions to La Follette’s teaching and research community over these past few years,” La Follette’s director Susan Yackee says. “Reed will be missed.”