About Yi Ning Chang

I work at the intersections of political theory and history, and my current research focuses on 1940s–50s Malay(si)a, Singapore and, increasingly, Vietnam. The projects I'm working on at the moment have to do with race, anticolonial thought, and the making of the postcolonial states in these places and at this time. I also have broader interests in international law and politics, especially where they intersect with anticolonial political thought.

Yi Ning Chang is a PhD student in political theory at the Department of Government at Harvard University. She works on the history of contemporary political thought, postcolonial theory, and the global histories of anticolonialism and anti-imperialism in Southeast Asia. Yi Ning can be reached at yiningchang@g.harvard.edu.

Yi Ning's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Yi Ning:

Joseph MacKay, "The Counterinsurgent Imagination: A New Intellectual History" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

February 17, 2023

The Counterinsurgent Imagination

Joseph MacKay
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

Counterinsurgency, the violent suppression of armed insurrection, is among the dominant kinds of war in contemporary world politics. Often linked to p…

Giovanni Mantilla, "Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict" (Cornell UP, 2020)

June 25, 2021

Lawmaking under Pressure

Giovanni Mantilla
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

Giovanni Mantilla’s new book, Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2020), t…

Emma Rothschild, "An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries" (Princeton UP, 2021)

June 15, 2021

An Infinite History

Emma Rothschild
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

Emma Rothschild’s new book, An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries (Princeton University Press, 2021) (see the book…

Robbie Shilliam, "Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction" (Polity, 2021)

March 24, 2021

Decolonizing Politics

Robbie Shilliam
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

Robbie Shilliam’s new book for the Polity Press’s “Decolonizing the Curriculum” series explores how the discipline of political science was born of co…

Duncan Bell, "Dreamworlds of Race: Empire and the Utopian Destiny of Anglo-America" (Princeton UP, 2020)

February 12, 2021

Dreamworlds of Race

Duncan Bell
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

Published in December 2020, Duncan Bell’s Dreamworlds of Race: Empire and the Utopian Destiny of Anglo-America (Princeton University Press, 2020) conc…

Sara Salem, "Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

February 9, 2021

Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt

Sara Salem
Hosted by Yi Ning Chang

In this conversation, Sara Salem, author of Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony (Cambridge University Press, 2020), talks to ho…