Berkley Center

Richard Madsen is director of the Fudan-UC Center on Contemporary China and distinguished professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. A sociologist who specializes in Chinese culture, American culture, and social theory, he was the co-director of a Ford Foundation project that sought to revive the academic discipline of sociology in China. His books include Chen Village under Mao and Deng (1992, with Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger), Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (1984), China and the American Dream (1994), China's Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society (1998), and Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan (2007). Madsen studied at Maryknoll Seminary and then received his M.A. in Asian studies and Ph.D. in sociology at Harvard University. He also studied at Fu Jen Catholic University and National Taiwan University from 1968 to 1971.