Andrew Mertha
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Washington University in St. Louis
Andrew Mertha received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in February 2001 and joined the faculty at Washington University in July that same year. His dissertation is entitled: “Pirates, Politics, and Trade Policy: Structuring the Negoitations and Enforcing the Outcomes of the Sino-U.S. Intellectual Property Dialogue, 1991-1999.” It explored factors that set the negotiation agenda for the intellectual property trade dialogue between Washington and Beijing in the 1990s and subsequent patterns of intellectual property enforcement in China.
His current research and teaching interests have included international trade, policy implementation/enforcement, and bureaucratic politics/political institutions, particularly within the context of contemporary China. His current research project is on the politics of dam building in China. He has lived in China for almost seven years, beginning in 1988.
Mertha's work has been recognized with teaching awards, a Center for Chinese Studies endowment award from the University of Michigan and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education. Since 2002, he has been recognized as the Earle H. and Suzanne S. Harbison Faculty Fellow.
His book, “The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property in Contemporary China,” was published by Cornell University Press in 2005. He has forthcoming articles in International Organization, Comparative Politics, and the China Quarterly.
A native of New York City, Mertha earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1987. He studied Mandarin Chinese at the United Nations in New York and at Sichuan Teacher's University in China. He worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where he represented a U.S. toy importer in dealings with Chinese officials and factory managers.