Kai Yui Samuel Chan

Kai Yui Samuel Chan is a Lecturer on Social Studies at Harvard University and a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and a BSSc in Government from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on reimagining political communities through entangled peoplehood, transnationalism, and methodological approaches in social science.

His work critiques conventional theories of sovereignty and citizenship, emphasizing relational self-determination. Key projects include Entangled Peoplehood, exploring legal histories of colonized, indigenous, and exiled peoples, and analyses of diasporic obligations across communities. He also interrogates ontological assumptions in deliberative systems theory, contrasting functionalist and interpretive approaches.

Chan’s scholarship bridges normative political theory with empirical critique, advocating for interpretive methodologies to align with deliberative democratic ideals. His articles challenge modernist social science paradigms, advocating for dialogic frameworks in political analysis.