On the afternoon of May 12, 2026, Charlotte Epstein, Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and Professor at Tokyo College, the University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study (UTIAS), visited the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU).

Other experts and scholars also took part in the seminar, including Pang Xun, Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), PKU and Director of the Global Risk Politics Analysis Lab; Duan Demin, Deputy Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS), PKU and Tenured Associate Professor at the School of Government (SG), PKU; Ma Xiao, Tenured Associate Professor at SG, PKU; Gu Chao, Assistant Professor at SG, PKU; Liu Lu, Assistant Professor at SIS, PKU; Chen Yuhui, Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and Ole Wæver, Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen and husband of Professor Charlotte Epstein.

The seminar was chaired by Assistant Professor Gu Chao. Participants engaged in an in-depth exchange on Professor Charlotte Epstein's book Birth of the State: The Place of the Body in Crafting Modern Politics, exploring the role of the body in the formation of modern politics and its political significance in the East Asian context.

Editor: Li Fangqi  Photo by: Zheng Huaizhou