Joshua Hill specializes in the study of modern China. Inspired by his experiences living in Ningbo, Zhejiang and Changsha, Hunan during the height of the “Reform and Opening Up” era in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hill’s research focuses on the introduction, circulation, and transformation of political ideas and attitudes in modern China. His first book,  Voting as a Rite: A History of Elections in Modern China , explores how Chinese leaders and thinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries conceptualized the meaning of elections and understood the purpose of voting.