Bio

I am an Assistant Professor at School of International Studies at Peking University and was a Research Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. I received my MSc and DPhil degrees in Politics at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and previously worked at the United Nations Development Programme. Before Oxford, I obtained a MA Honours in International Relations and Anthropology at University of St Andrews.

My research focuses on international development, conflict and security, and political anthropology. My doctoral research is on global norm contestation and translation, based on an in-depth political ethnography of international institutions in China. The monograph titled Norms, Storytelling and International Institutions in China: The Imperative to Narrate is published with Palgrave MacMillan in March 2021.

At the moment I am researching transnational actors in conflict-affected regions, and China’s foreign policies in conflict mediation, peacemaking and peacebuilding. I have conducted fieldworks and missions in Myanmar, Colombia, Venezuela, Lebanon and Syria. Close to international development community, I worked as consultant to UN and humanitarian agencies and participated in Track II diplomatic processes and the coordination of humanitarian assistance in conflict zones.