
Prof Maria Jaschok
Professor Maria H.A. Jaschok 叶玛丽教授 FGCA (PhD London/SOAS): most recently Director of the International Gender Studies Centre at Lady Margaret Hall, 2000-2018, she is currently a Senior Research Associate of the Contemporary China Studies in OSGA, and Supervisor and Tutor for the MSt in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Oxford. She held most recently a Visiting Professorship with King’s College, London, 2019-2021.
Her research interests are in the areas of gendered constructions of memory; feminist and aural ethnography; innovative research methodologies and uses of oral history in the writing of women’s history in Asian contexts. Long years of close research partnerships and friendships in the field engendered interest in feminist theorizing and ethnographic methodology and led to writing on collaborative modes of cross-cultural research and authorship. She is a member of many international academic and professional organizations, serving on steering committees, editorial and advisory boards.

Prof Madeline Carr
Professor Madeline Carr, Professor of Global Politics and Cybersecurity at University College London, as well as Co-Director of the interdisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity and Deputy Director of the REPHRAIN Protecting Citizens Online research hub. She previously served as Director of the UK-wide Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security, where she developed a research programme on cybersecurity in local government . She also holds board positions as a Non-Executive Director (NED) for Talion and as a member of the Advisory Board for the £70 million ‘Digital Secure by Design’ project. Her research focuses on the implications of emerging technologies for national and global security, international order, and corporate governance. She has published extensively on topics such as cyber norms, multi-stakeholder internet governance, the future of the insurance sector in the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity and international law, public–private partnerships in national cybersecurity strategies, and how boards approach cyber risk. She is the co-Editor of the ‘Digital Technologies and Global Politics’ book series published by Rowman and Littlefield. Additionally, she is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Council on the Connected World, where she leads a cross-sectoral group dedicated to addressing the cybersecurity of the IoT.

Dr Thomas Clarke
Dr. Thomas Clarke is the Principal Teaching Fellow of Technological Transformation at the Faculty of Engineering, in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, at Imperial College London, UK.
He possesses an impressive and varied academic and professional background. He completed his undergraduate degree in maths at University of Cambridge University, during which he designed and published research on a unique computer architecture known as SKIM. Following his time at Cambridge, Dr. Clarke delved into the industry, where he contributed significantly to the innovation of a diverse combination of analog, digital, and microprocessor-based electronics. This was done for a company specializing in manufacturing equipment that tests if products comply with RFI regulatory standards. Concurrently, he conceptualized another groundbreaking CPU architecture, which was later developed by a doctoral student at Cambridge. After dedicating three years to industry advancements, Dr. Clarke went back to Cambridge to earn his doctoral degree in Computer Science. He subsequently spent four years as a Fellow there.
Dr. Clarke transitioned to Imperial College, where he took on the role of a lecturer from the early 1990s. He has been playing an instrumental role at Imperial College, nurturing multiple areas of expertise. He imparts knowledge on computer architecture and functional programming. Furthermore, with the collaboration of numerous students, he has developed a sophisticated digital electronics design capture and simulation tool named Issie. This tool, consisting of a whopping 35K lines of programming – which is roughly equivalent to 100K lines in traditional languages, is an essential part of the Digital Electronics and Computer Architecture curriculum. Remarkably user-friendly, Issie can easily rival FPGA tool chains in terms of functionality. What’s even more noteworthy is the evolution of the students’ interaction with the tool. They start by utilizing Issie in their first year and by years 3 and 4, they actively contribute to its development, showcasing the immersive and dynamic nature of Dr. Clarke’s teaching methods.
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Prof Xiangqun Chang
Professor Xiangqun Chang 常向群教授 FRSA, FGCA and President of the Global China Academy (GCA), a UK-based independent worldwide fellowship that promotes comprehensive studies on China in the social sciences and humanities. Over the years, she has held honorary, part-time, or visiting professorships, as well as senior research fellow positions, at various universities in both the UK and China. These include University College London, SOAS University of London, the University of Westminster, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and City, University of London, as well as Nankai University, Jilin University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Northeastern University, among others. Her academic publications amount to over three million words in both English and Chinese, including Guanxi or Li Shang Wanglai?: Reciprocity, Social Support Networks and Social Creativity in a Chinese Village (Chinese, 2009; English, 2010). She has also served as the Editor-in-Chief of Global Century Press. She is the editor of the Journal of China in Global and Comparative Perspectives, Global China Dialogue Proceedings and several book series, including ‘Concepts of China,’ ‘Globalization of Chinese Social Sciences,’ ‘China and Chinese Comparative Studies,’ ‘Transcultural Experiences with “Three Eyes”’ ‘Cutting Edge and Frontiers’. Additionally, she is responsible for the bilingual (Chinese-English) publication of four academic journals and eight book series.
She remains the only Chinese sociologist with formal sociological training in both China and the UK who has been continuously engaged in academic work in the UK since arriving as a visiting scholar in 1991. To this day, she remains the only Chinese sociologist working long-term in the UK who has received formal sociological training in both China and the UK. Drawing on her extensive ethnographic research in a Chinese village, conducted with longitudinal comparisons, she developed the analytical concept of ‘recipropriety’ (lishang-wanglai 互适)—an adaptation of the classical and popular Chinese concept of li shang wanglai (礼尚往来). This concept explains the mechanisms by which Chinese society and social relations operate, contributing to existing theories on reciprocity, relatedness, social exchange, social creativity, social interaction, social networks, social capital, and transculturality, incorporating the notion of ‘ritual capital’ (礼仪资本) for a deeper understanding of and governance in global society. In recognition of her contributions, she was selected by the Academic Presidents of the International Sociological Association (ISA) as one of 15 sociologists worldwide who were ‘called upon to adapt the discipline to the upheavals of the twenty-first century’ (Practicing Social Science: Sociologists and Their Craft, by Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Routledge, 2017).
常向群教授,英国皇家艺术院院士、全球中国学术院院士及院长。全球中国学术院是一个总部设在英国的全球性院士制机构,致力于在人文和社会科学领域对中国进行独立、综合的研究。长期以来,她先后在英国和中国多所大学担任名誉教授、兼职教授、客座教授或高级研究员,包括伦敦大学学院、伦敦大学亚非学院、威斯敏斯特大学、伦敦政治经济学院、伦敦城市大学,以及南开大学、吉林大学、北京大学、中国人民大学、复旦大学、中山大学和东北大学等。她的中英文著述累计约300余万字,代表作包括:《马克思主义社会学论稿》(中文版共58万字,2018年;初版46万字,1992年)、《关系抑或礼尚往来:江村的互惠社会支持网和社会创造的研究》(中文简体字版54万字,2009年;英文版与繁体中文版,2010年)。她还主编了《社会建设:中国社会的一种发展模式》(英文版2014年;中英文增补版,2015–2018年),并与他人合作主编了三卷本《费孝通研究》(2015–2018年)。她还兼任环球世纪出版总编,主编《全球中国比较研究》期刊,《全球中国对话文集》辑刊,“中华概念”“中国社会科学全球化”“中国与中华比较视野”“‘三只眼’转文化”“新锐与前沿”等系列丛书,并负责四种学术期刊和八套系列丛书的中英双语出版事务。
她至今仍是唯一一位自1991年以访问学者身份来到英国以来,一直在英国持续从事学术工作,并接受过中国和英国社会学正规训练的华人社会学家。基于对中国某村庄长期深入的比较民族志研究,她提出了一个具有中国特色的互惠、互动、社会关系与社会网络模型。她借用并改造了中国古典与民间常用的“礼尚往来”概念,创造出一个基于“礼仪资本”、具有普适价值的分析概念——“互适”(recipropriety)。这一理论对社会学与人类学中的互惠、社会交换、社会互动、社会创造、社会网络与社会资本研究产生了重要影响,并被国际社会学协会(ISA)学术委员会评选为“应对动荡的21世纪社会学”的全球十五位有影响力的社会学家之一(见《实践社会科学:社会学家及其工匠研究》,德沃拉·卡莱金-费什曼著,劳特里奇出版社,2017年)。
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Charles Grant
Mr Charles Grant is the Founding Director of the Centre for European Reform since 1996. In January 1998 he left The Economist to become the CER’s first – and so far only – director. He is the author of numerous CER reports, including Russia, China and global governance (2012), How to build a modern European Union (2013) and Relaunching the EU (2017). He works on, among other subjects, Britain’s relationship with the EU, the future of the European Union, EU foreign policy, Russia and China.
After studying modern history at Cambridge University, Charles took a diploma in French politics at Grenoble University. Returning to London, Grant joined Euromoney, the financial magazine, in 1981. He moved to The Economist in 1986, where he wrote about the City. In 1987 he began a series of articles which exposed the County NatWest-Blue Arrow scandal, which led to two Department of Trade and Industry inquiries and a long criminal trial.
Charles was a director and trustee of the British Council from 2002 to 2008. He was a member of the international advisory board of the Moscow School of Political Studies (which became the Moscow School of Civic Education) from 2002 to 2015. He is a member of the international advisory boards of the Turkish think-tank EDAM, the French think-tank Terra Nova and the Italian think-tank Aspen Italia. He is on the advisory board of the Turkish think-tank EDAM, of the French think-tank Terra Nova and of the Italian think-tank Aspen Italia. He is a member of the Council of the Ditchley Foundation, of the advisory board of the UCL European Institute, of the Scottish First Minister’s Standing Council on Europe, and of the Brexit Advisory Panel of Make UK (formerly the Engineering Employers’ Federation). He is a member of Global China Academy Board of Trustees.
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Dr Yuan Cheng
Dr Grace Yuan Cheng advises clients on senior-level leadership advisory assignments across industries and geographies and leads the Greater China operations for Russell Reynolds Associates, splitting her time between Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Her clients include both multinational companies operating in China and domestic Chinese companies, including CEO and board searches, succession planning and executive assessment projects. Grace has 25 years of executive search and leadership advisory experience with two major global firms. Before that, she was a research fellow at the Policy Studies Institute (PSI), a London-based think tank, where she focused on employment and organizational research across the financial services, industrial and nonprofit sectors.
She received her BA in English from Beijing Foreign Studies University and her MA from the University of Massachusetts. She received her DPhil in sociology from the University of Oxford.
She is a board director for the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC) and a trustee for Global China Academy (GCA). She also sits on the advisory board of the Association of China Directors (AOCD).
She has authored/co-authored the following books: Effective Board: Global Best Practice; Restructuring Employment Relationship; Women of China; Education and Class: Chinese in Britain and US.
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