Welcome! I am Assistant Professor of International Relations at Duke Kunshan University starting from July 2022. My teaching and research interests include global China, African politics, and comparative political economy of development.
My research covers African state effectiveness and China’s economic and political engagement with Africa. My book project (under contract with Oxford University Press) investigates why Chinese-financed and -constructed develop into starkly different trajectories in different African countries. I used process tracing based on extensive fieldwork in Kenya, Ethiopia, Angola, and China. I also have ongoing collaborative projects in Cambodia.
I recently completed DPhil in Politics at the University of Oxford. I hold a Master of Science (MSc) in Politics Research from Oxford, a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelor of Law in international relations from Shanghai International Studies University. I was the 2021-22 fellow at the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program and Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Before Oxford, I served in the China office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and at the Sino-Africa Centre of Excellence Foundation Nairobi office.
Email: yuan.wang@duke.edu
Yuan Wang 