Research

Priority Research Themes

CCCS serves as a national hub for contemporary Chinese studies, fostering interdisciplinary research that brings together scholars from across the social sciences. Anchored at the University of Melbourne, the Centre leads a dynamic research program that spans key disciplines such as sociology, geography, development studies, public policy, and beyond. Our work is grounded in a commitment to understanding China’s complex transformations and their global implications. By linking the domestic and the global through the lens of Global China, we treat China’s overseas presence not simply as an empirical object but as a lens through which to rethink existing analytical categories, foregrounding the relational, contested, and multi-sited nature of China’s engagements with the world.

To guide and focus our efforts, we have established five research streams aligned with the core themes of our scholarly agenda:

• Civil Society and Youth
• Environment and Energy
• Gender and Sexuality
• Migration and Diaspora
• Transnational Crime