Rate My Professor Carsten Vala

Carsten Vala, Ph.D., is Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland, currently on leave as Visiting Professor at KU Leuven (2025-2027). He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.A. in Asian Studies from Williams College. Vala joined Loyola University Maryland in 2008 as Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, and to Professor in 2021. He has served as Chair of the Political Science Department and was a Fulbright Scholar at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Fall 2015.

Vala's research interests encompass Chinese politics, politics of religion, contentious politics, and politics of resource extraction in Latin America. He is the author of the book The Politics of Protestant Churches and the Party-State in China: God Above Party? (Routledge, 2017). Key peer-reviewed articles include “Protestant Engagement in Social Services and Outreach Activities in Contemporary China” (co-authored with Jianbo Huang and Jesse Sun, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, December 2015), “Protestant Christianity and Civil Society in Authoritarian China” (China Perspectives 3, 2012), and “Attraction without Networks: Recruiting Strangers to Unregistered Protestantism” (co-authored with Kevin J. O’Brien, Mobilization 12:1, March 2007). He has contributed book chapters such as “Three high-profile Protestant microbloggers in contemporary China” (in Stefania Travagnin, ed., Routledge, 2016) and “Pathways to the Pulpit: Leadership Training in ‘Patriotic’ and Unregistered Chinese Protestant Churches” (in Yoshiko Ashiwa and David Wank, eds., Stanford University Press, 2009). Vala’s scholarship has been funded by Loyola University Summer and Mid-Career Research Grants, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, Harvard-Yenching Institute–University of Hawaii–Beijing University Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley’s Dean’s Office and Center for Chinese Studies, and the Mustard Seed Foundation. He teaches courses including PS404 Politics of Resistance in Contemporary China, PS350 Comparative Politics, PS308 China and Globalization, PS302 Chinese Politics, and PS101 Politics, and has been interviewed by outlets such as Voice of America, Al Jazeera America, Time magazine, The Economist, South China Morning Post, and The New York Times.