Welcome to my website!

I am Si Wu, a 5th-year PhD Candidate in Political Science at Boston University. My research interests include comparative politics, political economy, development, gender, China, and political methodologies. I am committed to creating a better U.S.-China relationship – a pressing global issue, in my view – through my research on China's one-child policy, one of the most puzzling and impactful policies in the country's history. My work has implications not only for U.S.-China relations but also for other countries grappling with population decline.

My dissertation, "From Control to Choice: Women, Work, and Power in China's New Birth Planning Regime", will explore the politics and economic consequences of the end of China's one-child policy. To do this, it sets forth three questions. The first chapter explores the impact of the end of China's one-child policy on a key outcome for women's economic status: their labor market participation. The second chapter investigates how the All-China Women's Federation - China's official Women's Policy Agency - responds to the end of the one-child policy through its official discourse. Third, I examine the impact of political geography on childbirth preferences. I do this through the case of Guangzhou - a city in Southern China known for it rapid urbanization and the formation of "urban villages".

My dissertation committee members are Rachel Brulé, Joseph Fewsmith, Taylor Boas, Susan Greenhalgh (Harvard University), and Roselyn Hsueh (Temple University). At Boston University, my research has been supported by the Hariri Institute for Computing, the Global Development Policy Center, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.

I received my Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Imperial College London, U.K., and a Master's Degree in Journalism from Northeastern University.

Outside my work, I like to cook, travel, run, and practice yoga.