“When Geographies Collide: Hierarchical Regional Systems in China’s Great Leap Famine – Dr. Mark Henderson

Posted: 1/17/2025 (CSDE Seminar Series)

When: Friday, Jan 24, 2025 (12:30-1:30PM)

Where: 360 Parrington Hall and on Zoom (register here)

1-on-1 meetings: 223 Raitt Hall (sign up here)

We are looking forward to hosting Mark Henderson from Northeastern University on Friday, Jan. 24 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative. In addition, there are opportunities to meet 1-1 with Dr. Henderson throughout the day. Sign up here!

This project, initiated jointly with Cai Yong (UW PhD ’05) and Anthony Garnaut, aims to develop a new approach to analyzing spatial variations in the demographic impact of China’s Great Leap Forward (1958-61) using reliable georeferenced data. Building on the insights of anthropologist G. William Skinner, we direct attention to the conflicting spatial logics of political and market hierarchies. This approach compels us to reexamine conclusions drawn from data aggregated at the level of politically defined units—provinces, prefectures, counties, and townships—even as we find that political choices made at those levels had demonstrable effects on the outcomes of the Great Leap famine.

Mark Henderson is a professor of public policy at Mills College, which merged into Northeastern University in 2022. His research applies spatial analytic methods to social and environmental problems in the United States and China. He received a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley and was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, contributing to G. William Skinner’s regional systems analysis project.