Introducing the Centre’s New Leadership Team

We are pleased to announce the Centre for China Studies’ new leadership team that has assumed its duties from 1 August 2020.

The university has appointed Professor Jan Kiely to serve as Director. Associate Director of the Centre since 2010 and, previously, Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Centre for Chinese and American Studies (2007-2010), Kiely is a historian of modern China.

Professor Minhua Ling has accepted appointment as Associate Director and Graduate Division Head. A Yale-trained anthropologist on the Centre faculty since 2013, Ling was recently substantiated and promoted to Associate Professor.

Professor Timothy Summers has assumed the position of Programme Director of the MA in Chinese Studies programme. A Cambridge-educated former British diplomat, Summers earned his doctorate from our Centre’s PhD in Chinese Studies programme. A specialist in Chinese politics and international relations who has taught for the Centre as an Adjunct Lecturer and, most recently, as a full-time Lecturer, he has now been appointed Assistant Professor.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor David Faure for his outstanding service as the Centre for China Studies’ first Director and Professor Kristof Van den Troost for his successful leadership of the expansion and development of the MA in Chinese Studies programme as Programme Director in recent years.

Building on our foundations and our university’s unmatched Chinese Studies heritage and resources, we look forward to a new stage of strengthening and innovating our teaching, learning and research about China.