Dr Shuk Ying Chan

Lecturer in Political Theory
Room: 4.02, 29/30 Tavistock Square
Email: shuk.ying.chan@ucl.ac.uk 
Website

Biography

I joined UCL’s Department of Political Science in 2023, as Lecturer in Political Theory. Prior to UCL, I was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College and the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. I completed my PhD in political theory at Princeton University, where I was a Graduate Prize Fellow at the University Centre for Human Values (2018-19) and a Graduate Fellow at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (2019-2020). My dissertation was awarded the 2022 Leo Strauss Award (for best dissertation in political philosophy) from the American Political Science Association. I grew up in Hong Kong, and I hold an MPhil in Political Theory and a BA in History and Politics from the University of Hong Kong.

Research

My research sits at the intersection of 20th century anticolonial thought, contemporary theories of global justice, questions of empire and race, and ideas of equality and self-determination.

My book project, Postcolonial Global Justice (under contract with Princeton University Press), explores the moral and political implications of decolonization as an unfinished project of global justice. In it, I develop an account of “postcolonial global justice” by drawing on the normative visions and political programs of anticolonial thinkers in the era of formal decolonization. In doing so, my project aims to yield a set of historically informed and action-guiding principles that help navigate the questions of self-determination and equality raised in three areas of contemporary global politics: global governance, international investment, and global cultural exchange.

Publications

Journal articles

Chan, S. Y., and A. Patten. 'What’s Wrong with Neocolonialism: The Case of Unequal Trade in Cultural Goods.' American Political Science Review, 2023, 1–15. doi:10.1017/S0003055423000795.

Chan, S. Y. (2021) ‘On the International Investment Regime: A Critique from Equality’, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 20(2), pp. 202–226.

Teaching

I teach ‘Global Justice’ (POLS0100) and ‘Historical Injustice and the Politics of Decolonization’ (POLS103), and I co-teach ‘Global Ethics’ (PUBL0045).