About

Team Members

Reza Hasmath (Ph.D., Cambridge) is a Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He has previously held faculty positions in management, sociology, and political science at the Universities of Toronto, Melbourne, and Oxford. He has also worked for and advised global think tanks, consultancies, development agencies, and social organizations. He was formally trained in philosophy, public policy, international studies and diplomacy, social and political sciences, as well as various East Asian and European languages. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Civil Society, and is the Foundation Editor of the Routledge Research on the Politics and Sociology of China book series.

Timothy Hildebrandt is an Associate Professor of Social Policy and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Trained as a political scientist, his areas of expertise include state-society relations, Chinese politics, political communication, civil society, public health, sexuality, and social policy. He is author of Social Organisations and the Authoritarian State in China (Cambridge UP, 2013). His research has appeared in various academic journals including BMJ Open, Journal of Civil Society, Journal of Homosexuality, The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Review of International Studies, Voluntas, Development & Change, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Development Policy Review. Tim is also frequently interviewed by media outlets around the world, including BBC, CNN, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, among others. He is the Co-Editor of The China Quarterly.

Carolyn L. Hsu holds the position of Professor of Sociology at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. She is the author of Social Entrepreneurship in China (Routledge, 2017) and Creating Market Socialism (Duke UP, 2007), as well as articles in The China Quarterly, Voluntas, Sociological Quarterly, China Information, and Journal of Civil Society, among others. Her research interests include Chinese civil society, citizenship, NGOs, social movements and activism, social credit system, social entrepreneurship, institutions and organizations, social mobility and inequality, and narrative analysis. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Civil Society.

Jennifer Y.J. Hsu is a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales. Jennifer’s research is primarily focused on relations between state and NGOs in China, particularly the scope of interactions between the local state and NGOs. Within this research program, she has sought to locate her research in several interdisciplinary domains: theories of state-society relations, organisational development of NGOs and civil society, the internationalisation of Chinese NGOs and overseas Chinese communities. The different areas of her research enhance our theoretical understanding of how state and society engage under varying socio-political environments. Her monograph: State of Exchange: Migrant NGOs and the Chinese Government (UBC Press, 2017) details the importance of the local state in NGO development. 

Jessica C. Teets is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Middlebury College. Her research focuses on governance in authoritarian regimes, especially sources of change such as local policy experimentation and civil society. She is the author of Civil Society Under Authoritarianism: The China Model (Cambridge UP, 2014) and editor (with William Hurst) of Local Governance Innovation in China: Experimentation, Diffusion, and Defiance (Routledge, 2014), in addition to articles published in The China Quarterly, World Politics, Governance, and the Journal of Contemporary China. Dr. Teets is a fellow with the Public Intellectuals Program created by the National Committee on United States China Relations (NCUSCR), and is currently researching changing local governance under Xi Jinping. She was previously the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Political Science.

Research Assistants

Claire Cousineau

Emma Johns

Guodong Ju 

Wilson King

Alyssa Suhm

Research Funding

Colgate University Research Council Grant

London School of Economics and Political Science Titmuss Meinhardt Research Grant

Middlebury College Long-Term Faculty Development Award

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant 

University of Alberta China Institute Research Grant

Media or Public Enquiries

All media or public enquiries can be directed to the CPCS Administrator in the first instance.