Sean A James
Thematic Research Area
About
Sean James is a student of 20th century Chinese history under the supervision of Dr. Timothy Cheek. His interests centre on the history of revolutions and movements against structural oppression and social inequality, with a focus on the communist-inspired revolutions against capitalism and colonialism. He is currently researching the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and in particular, how the orthodox Marxists of the Fourth (Trotskyist) International sought to explain the significance of the victory of the Maoist Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War.
Research
Research Interests
- Modern Chinese Revolutions
- Third and Fourth Internationals in China
- Communist Movements
- Russian Revolutions and the Soviet Union
Current Research
My research focuses on the Chinese Trotskyists’ employment of the materialist conception of history and the theories of uneven and combined development and permanent revolution to explain the relations between the social class struggle and military-political transformation that took place from 1949-52, along with their efforts to provide a Marxist critique of and alternative to the Maoist Communist Party.
Other projects include translations (from Chinese to English) of primary sources on Chinese Trotskyist history and articles of Chinese scholars on modern Chinese history.
Awards
- Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program Award
- Confucius Institute Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages Scholarship
Tutorials
2022/2023
Course: History 432: International Relations in the Twentieth Century, Professors Michael Lanthier and Heidi Tworek
2021/2022
Course: History 103: World History Since 1900, Professor Steven Hugh Lee.
2020/2021
Course: History 350: The Soviet Union, Professor Alexei Kojevnikov.
2019/2020
Course: History 103, World History Since 1900, Professor Glen Peterson.