Dr. May Farid is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego. She is also a Public Intellectuals Program (PIP) fellow of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and a nonresident Carnegie China Fellow. Before joining the Kroc School, Dr. Farid conducted research as a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions and taught at the University of Hong Kong. She holds a DPhil in Politics from the University of Oxford. Outside academia, Dr. Farid conducted an institutional capacity building program for rural grassroots NGOs in China for seven years, and carried out a four-year research project on development in ethnic minority regions for China’s leading government policy think-tank under the State Council.
Dr. Farid studies the interaction between community groups and states, with a focus on policy influence under authoritarianism and, more recently, transnational advocacy. Her research explores how citizen groups shape state policies in a variety of contexts: grassroots NGO and INGO advocacy in China, cross-sector knowledge communities and local policy, and INGOs promoting global environmental governance in China's outbound aid and investment. Another branch of her research studies NGO interventions to empower citizens in the global South, such as fighting misinformation and promoting social cohesion in India. Her work has been published in International Affairs, World Development, Studies in Comparative International Development, Voluntas, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science.
Ordinary citizens are increasingly taking individual and collective initiative to address development challenges. Citizens of authoritarian regimes - and many democracies - struggle to have a voice in development and policy. How do community groups impact state policy and practice? What social and political dynamics foster community engagement?
Research
State-Society Relations in China
In systems that seem to offer limited opportunities for grassroots participation, citizen initiatives can coalesce into organizational forms allowing local groups to impact policy and local governance.
Transnational policy advocacy and authoritarianism
Global advocacy tactics, mechanisms and targets are changing. What strategies are proving effective with the ascendancy of South-South development? International actors, NGOs, enterprises, communities and states interact in strategic ways to promote sustainable global development.
Experiments in citizen engagement
What skills and capacities do individuals need in order to effectively engage and promote social change? Interventions that empower individuals to build social cohesion, combat misinformation and promote wellbeing can strengthen communities and contribute to effective governance.
Shaping Civic Space
Global civic space is shrinking. Citizen groups and NGOs are not passive victims of shrinking civic space, nor do they simply adapt under tightening control. Groups can actively identify still-open spaces for influence and constructive action, enter into them, and work to expand them. Observing such spaces and creative agency to expand them is vital in a time of contraction.
Join Professor May Farid for the next installment of our Kroc Pot entitled Navigating A New Landscape for Transnational Advocacy
Upcoming Talk at the Kroc School
Media & Events
Interview at "Community Development in the Global South" Conference at the University of Hong Kong
2025
Upcoming talk at the Kroc School