Saul Wilson

Saul Wilson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashoka University with a joint appointment at the Centre for China Studies. He is currently on leave as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University's Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs. His research focuses on China's urban development, land property rights, and political economy, particularly the state’s efforts to establish itself as a 'landlord state.' He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University (2022), and degrees from MIT (S.B. in Mathematics & Asian Studies, 2014; S.M. in Urban Studies, 2016).

Wilson’s book project, *The Landlord State*, examines the Chinese state’s mixed success in monopolizing urban land ownership. His broader work analyzes municipal politics, leadership impacts, and institutional reforms. He co-leads a dataset of Shanxi province officials since 1921, involving over 60,000 entries. He organizes the MIT-UBC-Harvard Urban China Zoom Speaker Series.

His research highlights tensions between state authority over businesses versus citizens, emphasizing temporal national trends over subnational variations. Collaborations include projects with Chen Hao, Cheng Cheng, and others on leadership dynamics and urban policy.