About
Welcome to my research website. My name is Simon Sihang Luo. I am a Nanyang Assistant Professor at the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme at Nanyang Technological University. I am a political theorist and intellectual historian.
At NTU, I am Lead Principle Investigator of research project "1980, The Global Electoral Moment: China and Beyond." This project takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the lived experience of electoral founding moments and the sentiments and visions harbored by such moments in China and beyond.
I have broad interests in modern and contemporary political theory, especially on themes such as memory, emotion, democracy, institutions, and social movements. My current book manuscript traces the uses and abuses of memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution from public debates to intellectual dialogues and policymaking in post-Mao China (1976-now). My peer-reviewed articles have been published by American Political Science Review, European Journal of Political Theory, Comparative Political Theory, and Global Intellectual History.
I regularly contribute to public political discussions in both English and Chinese. My Chinese writings have been featured on Beijing News Book Review Journal 新京报书评周刊, The Paper 澎湃新闻, Initium Media 端传媒, Oriental History Review 东方历史评论, and other outlets. . In English, my public commentary has appeared on Democracy Seminar and Palladium Magazine.
Before joining NTU, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Civics Initiative from 2022 to 2025. I received my Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Research Interests
Temporal focus: Modern; Contemporary
Regional focus: China; Asia; the United States
Thematic focuses: Political memory; Political emotion; Revolutions; Democratic theory; Social movements; Party theory; Mourning.
Education
Ph.D., Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2022
M.A., Politics, NYU, 2015
B.A., Philosophy, Tsinghua University, 2013