James D. Seymour

Research Interests: Politics of the PRC, especially Tibet and the northwest; comparative human rights

Dr. Seymour’s field is Chinese politics, and his particular interests are human rights, ethnic minorities, labor issues, and the environment. He is the primary author of New Ghosts, Old Ghosts: Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China (M. E. Sharpe, 1998). Before coming to Columbia, he taught at New York University, where he served as chair of the Politics Department in Washington Square College. Recent publications include the chapter “The Exodus: North Korea’s Out-migration,” in The Future of U.S.- Korean Relations: The Imbalance of Power, ed. John Feffer (Routledge, 2006); an essay in China’s Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development, ed. Kristen A. Day (M. E. Sharpe, 2005); and the chapter “Sizing Up China’s Prisons” in Crime, Punishment, and Policing in China by Børge Bakken (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

Dr. Seymour is also an adjunct associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where in the fall he teaches the graduate course “The Development of West China and the New Silk Road.”