Michelle S. Mood (surnamed Strauss from 1976 to 1985) is the daughter of itinerant academics, having lived mostly in the East and Midwest United States on such campuses as Vassar College, Kalamazoo College, and smaller universities before going to college to study comparative politics and political theory at Oberlin College. Her interest in China having been sparked by an honors project there, she went on to teach English at the remote China Institute of Mining and Technology before returning to study comparative politics, political theory and East Asian studies at Cornell University, receiving her Ph.D. in 1996. She was Assistant Professor of East Asian Politics at Providence College for a few years, during which time she taught both Asian politics and comparative politics classes as well as the introductory first-year political theory course, "Introduction to Ideologies." Her favourite courses are those teaching first-year students and seminars for upper-class students.

Since 1998 she has made her home with her family in Gambier, interrupted by a year as a post-doctoral fellow in Sweden (where her and partner Associate Professor Steve Van Holde's older son, Sam, was born) and as a senior research fellow in China (while Professor Van Holde was Fei Yi-ming Professor of Comparative Politics at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing program in 2003-2004 and 2006-2007). Professor Mood also teaches in the International Studies program, offering the new course INST 131 China in Transition, as well as staffing the senior seminar.

Areas of Expertise

Chinese Politics, Chinese rural development, political economy of development, women in politics, globalization

Education

Ph.D. Cornell University
M.A. Cornell University
B.A. Oberlin College

Courses Taught

INST 131: China in Transition
PSCI 362: Haves and Have Nots
PSCI 346: Riots, Ballots, and Rice: Comparative Asian Politics
PSCI 442: ST: Women in Dev/Developing World