News

Sep 3, 2024: Becky was interviewed by Yara Shahidi for her new podcast, "The Optimist Project"! It was a super fun experience to chat with Yara for an hour from the SiriusXM studio in Los Angeles.
Jun 2, 2024: Becky is excited to announce a forthcoming volume, The Extraordinary in the Mundane: Family and Forms of Community in China from Columbia University Press (January 2025). The book was written by the Research Group on Culture and Society of the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue of the Office of Global Engagement at Georgetown University. The contributors are an amazing group of ethnographers: Teresa Kuan, Yunxiang Yan, Richard Madsen, Gonçalo Santos, Lynn Sun, and Yichen Rao.
May 16, 2024: Now available from Routledge! Becky and Joseline Lu (a former undergraduate sociology major at Georgetown) have published a chapter in The Routledge History of Happiness, "Happiness and Grieving Well: Family Bonds and Mourning Practices in China."
Nov 12, 2022: Becky presents her paper, coauthored with Roman Palitsky, at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) in Baltimore, "The Ritual Resolution of Grief: How Grave Sweeping Maintains Continuing Bonds in China."
Oct 26, 2022: Becky speaks on "Sources of Happiness: Closeness-to-Distance Ratios and Social Acknowledgement" in a guest lecture for the SOCI-226 class, "The Good Life: From Self to Society" at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Aug 6, 2022: Becky will present her new paper at the American Sociological Association's (ASA) annual meeting, at the Culture Section's "Advances in Cultural Theory" panel organized by Lyn Spillman. The paper's title is "A Relational Model of Ritual and Emotion: Xunzi and Bereavement."
Jun 14, 2022: Becky joins the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs as Senior Fellow.
Apr 19, 2022: Becky is featured as a guest in the podcast series, U.S.-China Nexus, part of the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue. The segment is called, "Code Switching, Religion, and Happiness in China."
Nov 12, 2021: Becky speaks on "Happiness in China" at the University of Rochester for a workshop on Spiritual Crisis and Moral Transformation in Contemporary China led by John Osburg.
Oct 22, 2021: Becky will present two new papers at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion annual meeting in Portland, OR. In a session on "Religion, Grief, and Healing Practices," she will present the paper, "What Happens After Someone Dies? Experiential Belief, Narrative Belief, and Grave Sweeping in China." At the session on "Religious Practice and Boundary Making," she will present a paper on "The Prevalence and Social Determinants of Grave Sweeping in China" (with her former undergraduate student, Joseline Lu).
Sep 29, 2021: "Nervous Millennials," a new blogpost for the Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues in response to the prompt on Shared Approaches and Prospects for Peace, is now up.
Aug 9, 2021: Becky will present her new paper at the American Sociological Association's (ASA) annual meeting, at the Sociology of Culture Section's Regular Session, "The Temporal Production of Culture: Family, Emotions, and Grave Sweeping in China."
Jan 29, 2021: Becky will be moderator and panelist for "China, Unseen: Solving Problems in the New Era," an event in Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues. The discussion will focus on the predicaments ordinary people are facing in China today, and distinctive ways that they go about resolving them. Video now available here.
Oct 28, 2020: Becky will be moderator and panelist for "Such a Time as This": Racial Justice and the University," an event in Georgetown College's new series. The conversation will focus on "Spatial Politics: Prisons, Cities, and Borders."
Oct 13, 2020: Becky is quoted and research cited by VICE Magazine, "Texting My Mom Photos of My Dinner Is How I Tell Her I'm Okay." The research was co-authored with Judy Wang and Yulia Chentsova Dutton.
Sep 2, 2020: Announcement of an exciting new program for students interested in China! The launch of the "U.S.-China Student Challenge", a new student program that calls for dialogue, cooperation and creative ideas among American and Chinese undergraduate students to help reset the U.S.-China relationship at this turbulent and historic moment. Two winning teams will be announced in spring 2021. Individual members of each winning team will each receive an award of $2,500. Any questions about the program can be directed to uschinadialogue@georgetown.edu
Sep 1, 2020: Becky appears in Georgetown College News, "Two Sociology Professors Teach Course that Examines Impacts of COVID-19 on Society."
Aug 10, 2020: Becky will give her paper, “Reconceptualizing Global Religion: Characteristics of Grave-Sweeping in China,” at the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on the Sociology of Religion, Global Religion session. 10:30am–12:10pm PST.
Jul 9, 2020: Becky did a virtual event on "How Racism Permeates American Institutions" with Corey Fields as part of the series, "Conversations About Racial Injustice: The Movement Towards Equity and Fairness" of The Office of the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (IDEAA), Georgetown University. Recording now available here.
Jun 5, 2020: Becky was mentioned in the New York Times article, "Why Michael Eric Dyson Would Demote 'Heart of Darkness' from the Canon."
May 6, 2020: Culture and the Common Good in China and the United States Background Report available from the Research Group on Culture and the Common Good, US-China Dialogue on Global Issues
May 2, 2020: Becky will be speaking on "The Study of Religion Today" at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University in a panel discussion with Brian Steensland and John Schmalzbauer. RESCHEDULED FOR MAY 2021.
Feb 21, 2020: Becky was a discussant in an event at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, "Is Christianity Shrinking or Shifting? Findings from the World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition." Event video available.
Sep 24, 2019: Becky's new book, The Chinese Pursuit of Happiness: Anxieties, Hopes, and Moral Tensions in Everyday Life, co-edited with Richard Madsen, is now available from the University of California Press.
Feb 28, 2019: At the Center for Asia Pacific Studies, University of San Francisco, Becky will discuss how young adults, middle aged and older people in China define happiness.
Feb 2019: "Hsu tackles question of happiness in China" in Georgetown College News.
Jan 2019: Part of the "China's New Era" speaker series, co-hosted by the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue and the Walsh School of Foreign Service Asian Studies Program, Becky discussed her upcoming new book.
Aug 2018: At the The Roots & Branches of Interpretive Sociology: Cultural, Pragmatist, and Psychosocial Approaches meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, Yale University's Center for Cultural Sociology, and Psychosocial Scholars Group, Becky presented her research on young adults and filial piety in the "Micro-Interactions and the Meanings of Personal Relationships" session.
Jan 2018: At the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies-UCLA International Institute, Becky took up the question of how people in China today define happiness.
Oct 2017: At the Pew Research Center's conference on Survey Research and the Study of Religion in East Asia , Becky presented on "Social contact variables and religious activity: Blessed Happiness Survey 2016."
Oct 2017: At the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion annual meetings in Washington, DC, Becky will participate in an Author-Meets-Critic session for her book, Borrowing Together. She will also participate in the "Religion, Global Poverty, and International Development" panel and present a paper entitled, "Can Comparing What a Person is Imagined to Be Enhance the Study of Religion? A Typology of Personhood."
Aug 2017: At the American Sociological Association annual meetings in Montreal, Becky will present a paper in an invited thematic session, "Happiness and Inequality."
Mar 2016: "The Good Life: Defining Happiness in China" in Georgetown College News .
Feb 2016: The Washington Post covered Becky's research in "What people around the world mean when they say they're happy."
Jan 2016: Becky presented "The Good Death: Present-Day Rituals, Blessed Happiness, and Family Lineage" at a symposium, "Blessed Happiness (Fu): Visions of a Good Life in Urban China," highlighting findings from a three-year long project.
Aug 2015: At the American Sociological Association annual meetings in San Francisco, Becky received an honorable mention for the Faculty Article Award of the Sociology of Development Section for her article, "Alleviating Poverty or Reinforcing Inequality? Interpreting Microfinance in Practice, with Illustrations from Rural China," published in the British Journal of Sociology.
Mar 2013: "What is Happiness?" in Georgetown College News.