- PhD student
- Date
- Thursday 15 Dec 2022, 15:30 - 17:30
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula B and livestream
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies

On 15 December 2022 Brandon Sommer will defend his PhD thesis analysing China's socioeconomic system using an innovative approach to political economy.
Using the Immanent Causality Morphogenetic Approach - French Regulation (ICMA-FR), Brandon Sommer will examine the systemic aspects of the Maoist period from the early 1960s until 1976. He follows this with an analysis of the 1980s and early 1990s during which Reformers and Conservatives redefined their position in relation to one another in order to maneuver themselves into a dominant position.
The thesis makes a material and immanently causal argument about the key properties that comprise the systemic persistence of China's socioeconomic system today.
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Watch Brandon's defence live

Download the abstracts
Doctoral Board
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisors
Professor Arjun Bedi, ISS
Dr Karim Kniou
Dr Stefan Schmalz
Full Doctoral Committee
Dr Yi Yang, Peking University
Professor Philip Gorski, Yale University
Professor Jeffrey Henderson, University of Bristol
Professor Sarah Eaton, Humboldt University, Berlin
Dr Jue Wang, Leiden University
- More information
The ceremony will begin promptly at 15.30 hrs in the Aula of the ISS, Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague. The doors will be closed after the start of the Public Defence, but will be briefly opened after the candidate’s introduction to allow latecomers to enter.
Children under 7 years old are not allowed in the Aula during the first part of the ceremony.
Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- Related links
- ISS PhD programme