It gives me great pleasure to announce the Headship appointment of Prof Wenfang Tang in the Division of Social Science (SOSC) effective from 29 June 2019.

 

The candidacy of Prof Wenfang Tang as the SOSC Head was put forward by the SOSC Head Search Committee formed in May 2018 as a result of a rigorous international search process. The Search Committee considered Prof Tang a strong candidate in view of his body of scholarship, administrative experience and the views outlined in his vision talk during campus visit.

 

Since graduation from the University of Chicago with a PhD in Political Science in 1990, Prof Tang started his academic career at University of Pittsburgh where he rose through the ranks from Assistant Professor and Associate Professor to Full Professor from 1990 to 2009. He then joined the University of Iowa as Professor of Political Science and International Studies, and as C. Maxwell and Elisabeth M. Stanley and Hua-Hsia Chair of Chinese Culture and Institutions since 2009. He has served as the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Iowa since 2016.

 

Prof Tang is a political scientist who conducts research on domestic Chinese politics with a specific focus on public opinion and political culture. A prolific scholar who has published dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals and seven books and monographs with major university presses such as Cambridge, Oxford and Stanford, Prof Tang’s articles and books are widely cited. Over the years, Prof Tang has assumed a variety of administrative responsibilities, both within his university and beyond. In addition to serving on the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association’s Comparative Public Opinion Research Committee, he sits on the advisory boards of several large-scale survey projects sponsored by European Research Council of the European Union, Peking University, Sun Yat-Sen University, and Renmin University. Prof Tang is clearly a highly-respected scholar with the international stature and administrative experience to lead our Division of Social Science effectively in the years to come.

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Prof Cameron Campbell for his leadership and contribution as Acting Head in the Division of Social Science since July 2018, and thanks to members of the Search Committee, comprising Prof Jaideep SENGUPTA (Chair), Prof Cameron CAMPBELL, Prof Wenkai HE, Prof Jenny SMITH, Prof Alvin SO, and Ms Christine TANG (secretary), for their time and effort in conducting this important search.

 

Last but not least, please join me in extending our warmest welcome to Prof Tang and in rendering your unreserved support as he takes on this new role.

 

 

Provost