Core Members
Dario Castiglione is Director of the Centre for Political Thought at the University of Exeter. His main areas of research comprise democratic theory and the history of early modern political philosophy. He has written on representation, citizenship and constitutionalism; theories of civil society and social capital; the nature of the European Union; and the Scottish Enlightenment. His recent publications include Creating Political Presence: The New Politics of Representation (co-edited, Chicago UP, 2018), and with Richard Bellamy, From Maastricht to Brexit: Democracy, Constitutionalism and Citizenship in the EU (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019). Learn more about Dario’s work here.
Xianan Jin is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus. She joined the department in September 2022. Xianan has studied politics and practised feminism in Beijing, Taipei, Bologna, London and Kigali. She is interested in the representation and resistance of gendered subjects in global politics, and how gendered subjects from rich and poor backgrounds participate in politics differently. For her first book project, she did her fieldwork in Rwanda for a year to investigate women’s engagement with politics after the genocide in 1994. This book is based on her PhD thesis, The Political Economy of Women’s Political Participation in Rwanda: Gender, Class and Statebuilding, at SOAS, University of London. Learn more about Xianan’s research here.
Chunrong Liu is an associate professor of political science at School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Fudan University and a research associate at Nordic Institute of Asian studies (NIAS). He obtained his PhD degree from City University of Hong Kong in 2005 and conducted post-doctoral research at Georgetown University. Dr. Liu’s research interests are in the areas of political sociology and comparative politics. He has published widely on the dynamics of state-society relations in post-reform China, including several authored or co-authored books in Chinese such as Bring the Grassroots Back In (2019), Community Governance and Marginal Innovations in Chinese Politics (2018), Chinese Society along the Huangpu River (2016). He also serves as the founding managing director of Fudan-European Centre for China Studies. Learn more about Chunrong’s work here.
Alice Moseley is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter, UK. Prior to her appointment at Exeter, she lectured at the University of Southampton. Her research interests are in three main areas: (i) behavioural public policy and public administration; (ii) citizen involvement in public policy especially deliberative public engagement (iii) various other aspects of civic and political engagement (eg electoral participation, political participation of under-represented groups). Her most recent research has been published in Policy and Politics, Journal of European Public Policy and Politics and Governance. Learn more about Alice’s work here.
Catherine Owen is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter, UK. Previously she was British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow also at Exeter. Her research interests include participatory governance in authoritarian contexts. Prior to her appointments at Exeter, Catherine lectured in the Department of History and Civilization at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China. Catherine has held Visiting Fellowships at the European University at St Petersburg, Fudan University Shanghai, the St Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. Her most recent research has been published in The China Quarterly, Review of International Studies, and British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Learn more about Catherine’s work here.
Xuan Qin is a lecturer and research fellow in the Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences in Fudan University. She received her B.A. from Beijing Normal University, her M.A from Peking University and her Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University. Her research covers deliberative democracy, grass-root governance and democratic theory. Her first book, Reinforcing Authoritarianism through Democracy, was published by Palgrave Pivot in 2021. Her articles are found in journals including International Political Science Review, The China Quarterly, Chinese Political Science Review, and Japanese Journal of Political Science. Learn more about Xuan’s work here.
Postgraduate Members
Sophie Figueiredo is an MA student in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter and she is a research assistant for the Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network. Her research interests are in the role of ideas, norms and identities in international relations, and how these influence behaviours. Her dissertation explores the formation of the ‘West’, its collective identity, common narrative, and its implications for foreign policy prescriptions. In addition, Sophie is a cox for the University of Exeter’s rowing team and competed at Henley Royal Regatta in 2019.
Yuan Li is a PhD Candidate in the School of International Relations & Public Affairs at Fudan University. His research interests encompasses a range of topics relating to Chinese governance, including grassroot governance, local government and media politics. He received his MA in Social Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his BA in International Politics at Shanghai International Studies University. Prior to his postgraduate studies, he worked as a village committee assistant in Qingpu district, Shanghai.
Yanjun Zhu is an MA student in the Department of Sociology at Fudan University, Shanghai. Her research interests include discourse analysis, Chinese political culture, and Chinese governance in the New Era. She is also interested in the history of the exchange of ideas between China and the West, as a lens to explore processes of globalisation and modernity. In addition, Yanjun is a timpanist in Fudan University symphony orchestra.