Directors and Researchers

Professor Mark Wang
Professor Mark Wang

Professor Mark Wang

Director

Mark Wang is Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies and Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Melbourne. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science at Shanxi Normal University in 1982 and Master of Science at Northeast Institute of Geography and Agro-Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1985. In 1995 he gained his PhD from the University of British Columbia. Mark has been with the University of Melbourne since 1996. His recent research concerns China’s land acquisition, resettlement/displacement, migration, and water management.

Mark Wang curriculum vitae

Associate Professor Anthony Spires
Associate Professor Anthony Spires

Associate Professor Anthony Spires

Deputy Director

Anthony J. Spires joined the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies as Deputy Director and senior lecturer in January 2018. Prior to coming to the University of Melbourne, he held positions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and as Director of the Centre for Social Innovation Studies. His research focuses on the development of civil society in China, including philanthropy, governmental regulation, and the cultures of non-profit organisations. He recently served as a Consulting Editor for The American Journal of Sociology and is a frequent reviewer for other academic publications and presses. His research has appeared in The China Journal, China Quarterly, China Information, Journal of Civil Society, and The American Journal of Sociology.

Anthony Spires personal website

Dr Sarah Rogers
Dr Sarah Rogers

Dr Sarah Rogers

Senior Lecturer

Sarah Rogers joined the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies in 2016 as a Research Fellow. Sarah is a human geographer specialising in social and environmental change in rural China. Her research interests include hydropolitics, poverty alleviation, resettlement, and agrarian change. She is a Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery Project DP180100519 (2018-2020) examining the restructuring of China’s agricultural sector, and is conducting research on poverty resettlement with a grant from the Ford Foundation. Sarah’s research has been published in Nature, Global Environmental Change, and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Dr Monica Tan
Dr Monica Tan

Dr Monica Tan

Research Fellow

Monica Tan joined the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies as a Research Fellow in January 2020. She is a China studies specialist with research interests in health policy, health social science, and China's global engagement. She is currently working with a Ford Foundation grant to investigate Chinese investment projects in Indonesia, and leading several collaborative projects on China's grassroots-level response to COVID-19, anti-Chinese sentiment in Western countries, and conducting fieldwork in China during and beyond the pandemic. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Contemporary China, BMC Public Health, Chinese Sociological Review, and Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies.