Academics at the China Centre

Academics at the China Centre

The University of Oxford China Centre joins together academics from across the whole University, co-ordinating activities in all areas.  Academics from across the four divisions of Oxford are represented at the China Centre.

Humanities Division

Dr Robert Chard: University Lecturer in Classical Chinese
  • Research interests: Chinese popular religion; early medieval Chinese history and the use of literary compositions for political purposes; the Confucian ritual canon and its implementation in the state cults of the Imperial period; modern martial arts novels (wuxia xiaoshuo).

Professor Henrietta Harrison: Professor of Modern Chinese Studies

Professor Rana Mitter: Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, Deustche Bank Director of the University of Oxford China Centre
  • Research interests: Nationalism; Sino-Japanese War and its legacy

Professor Barend J. ter Haar – Run Run Shaw Professor of Chinese

Dr Margaret Hillenbrand: University Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature
  • Research interests: Modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Modern Japanese Literature, East Asian comparative literature, Chinese cinema

Professor Craig Clunas: Professor of History of Art
  • Research interests: Ming and contemporary Chinese art and material culture
Professor Dame Jessica Rawson: Professor of Chinese Art and Archeology
  • Research interests: Material culture of premodern China
Ms Shelagh Vainker: University Lecturer in Chinese Art (part-time); Curator of Chinese Art
  • Research interests: material culture of the northern Song dynasty; modern Chinese painting and graphic arts
Dr Roderick Campbell: Junior Research Fellow in Chinese Archeology
  • Research interests: Chinese Bronze age, especially Late Shang Period. Long-term relationships between violence and order, formation and development of complex polities

Dr Nicholas Bunnin: Director of Philosophy Project
  • Research interests: Chinese and Western philosophy
Dr Dirk Meyer: BICC Career Development Lecturer in Chinese
  • Research interests: Palaeography of early manuscripts, Warring States period

Mrs Jing Fang: Instructor in Modern Chinese

Ms Bo Hu: Instructor in Modern Chinese

Mr Shio-Yun Kan: Instructor in Modern Chinese, Programme Director of the Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Mrs Yang Song: Shaw instructor in Modern Chinese

Social Sciences Division

Professor Elisabeth Hsu: Professor in Anthropology
  • Research interests: Chinese medicine; medical anthropology
Dr Maria Jaschok: Director, International Gender Studies Centre
  • Research interests: Gender studies; Muslim women
Dr Fernanda Pirie: University Lecturer in Socio-legal Studies
  • Research interests: Tibet; law
Professor Biao Xiang: Professor in Social Anthropology based at COMPAS and ISCA
  • Research interests:Migration, global political economy, China, India, state and governance, labor, political and economic anthropology 
Professor Matthew Erie: Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Studies
  • Research interests: anthropology of law; law and society; China anthropology; Muslim minorities

Emeritus Professor John Knight: Professor in Economics
  • Research interests: Well-being, education and poverty; rural-urban migration
Dr Xiaolan Fu: Professor of Technology and International Development, Director of Technology and Management for Development Centre.
  • Research interests: Innovation, technology and development; trade and foreign investment
Dr Eric Thun: Peter Moores Lecturer in Chinese Business Studies
  • Research interests: Industrial development; globalization of Chinese firms

Professor Vivienne Shue: Emeritus Leverhulme Professor of Contemporary China Studies
  • Research interests: State, politics and society; local government
Professor Rosemary Foot: Professor of International Relations
  • Research interests: China’s relations with Asia and the West
Dr Patricia M Thornton:  University Lecturer in the Politics of China
  • Research interests: Politics and society, popular contention, Chinese cyberspace, consumerism in China
Dr Paul C. Irwin Crookes: Departmental Lecturer in the Political Economy/International Relations of China 
  • Research interests: East Asian political, economic and security issues, intellectual property regime evolution in China and India, China's emerging national innovation system

Prof. Winnie Yip: Professor of Health Policy and Economics
  • Research interests: Incentives and provider behaviour, Evaluation of health system interventions, Delivery of cost-effective health interventions, Health care policy evaluation, Social, economic and cultural determinants of health and well-being, Design of health systems

Dr Rachel Murphy: University Lecturer in the Sociology of China
  • Research interests: Internal migration; education; population policy

Dr Anna Lora-Wainwright: University Lecturer in the Human Geography of China
  • Research interests: environment and health, rural population and local development

Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division

Prof. Andrew Goudie: Emeritus Professor in Geography
  • Research interests: dust storms in the Chinese desert regions, climatic change, management of Geoparks (Zhangjiajie)
Dr Troy Sternberg: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Research interests: the Gobi desert, Chinese drylands, Mongolia, natural hazard impact on landscapes and society

Prof. Mike Searle: Professor of Earth Sciences
  • Research interests: mountain building processes (Himalaya, Karakoram and Tibetan Plateau regions), Red River fault zone (Yunnan Province and Vietnam)
Prof. Derek Siveter: Professor of Earth Sciences
  • Research interests: geology/paleontology, fossil invertebrates especially anthropods

Medical Sciences Division

Prof. Alastair Buchan: Head of Medical Science Division, Professor of Stroke Medicine

  • Research interests: neuroprotection, cell and molecular biology, acute stroke programme

Prof. Zhengming Chen: Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the China Programme for the Clinical Trial Service Unit, Co-Director of China Oxford Centre for International Health (Beijing)

  • Research interests: large randomized trials of widely practicable treatments for chronic diseases (IHD, stroke and cancer), environmental and genetic causes of chronic diseases, efficient strategies for chronic disease control in developing countries

Dr Yiping Chen: MRC China Study coordinator and senior investigational scientist at CTSU

  • Research interests: large-scale medical research, women health, mental health

Prof. Jonathan Flint: Michael Davys Professor of Neuroscience

  • Research interests: genetics of major depression in Chinese women

Prof. Rury Holman: Professor of Diabetic Medecine

  • Research interests: prevention, appropriate treatment and cardiovascular risk reduction in people with type 2 diabetes