Isabella Weber

Isabella M. Weber (Ph.D., University of Cambridge and Ph.D., The New School for Social Research) is the Research Leader for China of the Asian Political Economy Program at PERI and an Assistant Professor of Economics at UMass. She was previously a Lecturer (tenured) at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the principal investigator of the Economic and Social Research Council (UK)-funded research project “What drives specialisation? A century of global export patterns.” Isabella holds an M.Phil. and M.A. in Economics from The New School for Social Research, a B.A. from Free University Berlin and studied Chinese at Peking University. She is the author of the forthcoming book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate (discussed in this interview). Her work combines economic theory, economic history and China studies to examine the interaction between economic thinking, policy and long-term structural patterns in periods of deep social transformation. Her research has been awarded the 2018 Warren Samuels Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in History of Economic Thought and Methodology and the 2019 International Convention of Asia Scholars’ Ground-breaking Subject Matter Accolade. She has regularly served as a China expert for BBC News and as adviser to members of the German parliament on China issues.

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Professional Experience: 

• 2019-present Assistant Professor of Economics, Present Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• 2017-2019 Lecturer in Economics (tenured) Goldsmiths, University of London

Teaching: 

• Econ 204 Intermediate Macroeconomics
• Econ 306 History of Economic Thought (undergraduate)

Honors and Awards: 

• 2019 International Convention of Asia Scholars’ Ground-breaking Subject Matter Accolade for Ph.D. Thesis (Cambridge)
• 2018 Warren Samuels Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
• 2018 Goldsmiths International Engagement Fund Award
• 2018 Goldsmiths Research and Enterprise Committee Award
• 2015 Vice Chancellor’s Award, Cambridge Trust
• 2010-2012 Social Science Research Training Award, German National Academic Foundation

Grants: 

• 2019-20 ESRC Rebuilding Macroeconomics Research Grant, “What Drives Specialisation? A Century of Global Export Patterns”, (Principal Investigator), $80,780 (GBP60,452)
• 2017-2021 China National Social Science Foundation Major Research Grant, (named researcher), PI: Prof. Cheng Lin, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
• 2016 Fudan University, Research Institute for China’s Economy, visiting research grant
• 2016-2017 Suzy Paine Fund, Department of Economics, University of Cambridge, fieldwork grant
• 2016-2017 The Universities’ China Committee London, fieldwork grant
• 2016 Young Scholars Initiative Conference Award by the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the European Society for the History of Economic Thought
• 2016-2017 Visiting Scholarship, Tsinghua University, School for Public Policy and Management
• 2016 Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, Greta Burkill Grant
• 2016 Cambridge Political Economy Society, fieldwork grant
• 2015 The New School for Social Research, conference travel grant
• 2013-2019 The Dean’s Merit Scholarship, The New School for Social Research
• 2013-2015 European Recovery Program (ERP) Fellowship, German Federal Ministry of Economy and German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
• 2010-2011 German National China Scholarship Program, German National Academic Foundation
• 2007-2015 German National Academic Foundation Prize Scholarship
• 2007-2015 Villigst National Prize Scholarship

Presentations: 

• 2020: Society for the Advancement of Social Economics, online; European Congress on World and Global intellectual History, Turku (cancelled); History of Economics Annual Conference, online; Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference, Boston (cancelled); Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference, Boston
• 2019: Development Studies Association Annual Conference
• 2018: British Association of China Studies Annual Conference, London; International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy Annual Conference, Pula; The History of Economic Thought Society 50th Anniversary Conference, Oxford
• 2016: 40th Anniversary Conference of the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge; Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, Paris; Ricardo Conference, Royal Economic Society, Ricardo Society of Japan, School of  riental and African Studies, London
• 2015: The Nation-State and the World Economy between Two Eras of Globalization, 1913 – 1975, Institute for New Economic Thinking Young Scholars Initiative, Pisa; Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Taipei
• 2014 Eastern Economics Association, Boston\