About Eleanor Cao
Hi! My name is Eleanor Cao, and I am a rising sophomore at Columbia University (Columbia College). I am interested in the intersection between political theory and intellectual history, with a special focus on modern Chinese thought and Taiwanese politics.
In my first summer as a Laidlaw scholar, I will be probing Chinese political scientist Yan Jiaqi's theory of democracy in the long 1980s (1978-1992).
Please chat with me about art & literature, cats, corvids, crochet, figure skating, and more!!
Recent Comments
Hi Evalina!
It's such a pleasure to read through your thoughtful reflections, especially your point about the difference between a human researcher and AI. I agree that researchers can judge and think critically in a way LLMs cannot, and I love that you are interrogating the costs of efficiency when society often prioritizes it.
Also, I'm almost always studying in the Butler Library main reading room. It'd be great if we can do some work together there!
Hi Celine! I love that you are taking such an interdisciplinary approach and I definitely look forward to learning more about your research!
I also resonate with your concerns about narrowing down your topic and finding abundant primary sources, but I'm sure a breakthrough will come as we progress. Meeting with our personal librarian has been extremely helpful as I navigate finding sources, so I'd recommend chatting with Dr. Wang more!
Hi Eleanor!
I completely resonate with your challenges in navigating an individual research project, especially in defining and meeting goals. One approach I have taken is to create a daily schedule with tasks and time blocks. I set separate interim goals for each week and base my daily tasks on how I can fulfill them. For example, my goal for the end of next week is to complete my legislative scan, so I have set a numeric target for how many states I aim to cover each day (alongside other tasks, meetings, and organizational work). Perhaps for your project, a similar approach could be useful, identifying a specific number and specifying which sources you want to engage with on a given day.
Separately, I had the opportunity to co-lead a committee on China's Great Leap Forward at Columbia's Model United Nations Conference and Exposition this past year, and it was an incredible experience to learn so much about Chinese political theory. Although your project focuses on a later period, I look forward to hearing more about your research as it evolves! It is exciting that you have access to the primary sources at Columbia's East Asian Library.
Hi Evalina! Thank you so much for sharing your approach--I'll definitely try that for my project! Your CMUNCE experience sounds absolutely amazing, and I'll be so glad to talk more about Chinese politics with you : )