Research Fellows and Postdocs

Non-Resident Senior Research Fellows (in alphabetical order)

Ilan Alon, Ph.D. Dr. Alon is Professor of Strategy and International Marketing at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder (Norway). He also is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Emerging Markets and the European Journal of International Management. His specialties include internationalization, modes of entry, political risk, and emerging markets. Alon is a frequent speaker or writer on well-known international media. He earned his Ph.D. at Kent State University (USA).

Sebastian Bersick, Ph.D. Dr. Bersick is Professor of International Political Economy of East Asia and Vice-Dean, Faculty of East Asian Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany). He also is the Executive Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for European Union (EU)-Asia Connectivity (CEAC) and holds an EU Jean Monnet Chair. He specializes in EU-Asia relations, East Asian integration, and China as a regional and global actor. His previous positions include Associate Professor, Fudan University (China); Senior Associate, European Institute for Asian Studies/EIAS (Brussels), Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik/ SWP (Berlin), and the German Council on Foreign Relations/DGAP (Berlin).

Shaun Breslin, Ph.D. Dr. Breslin is Professor of Political and International Studies at Warwick University (UK). He also is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Associate Senior Research Fellow at the ISPI (Italy), and Co-Editor of the well-known Pacific Review. A specialist on China and political economy, he has published numerous articles, book chapters, and books on FDI in China, Chinese domestic economic reform, China and the global economic order, and China’s financial system.

Lourdes Casanova, Ph.D. Dr. Casanova is Director of the Emerging Markets Institute and Senior Lecturer, Johnson College of Business, Cornell University. Deemed one of 50 most influential Iberoamericans by Esglobal, she is a co-editor of Innovation from Emerging Markets (Cambridge, 2021) and a co-author of The Era of Chinese Multinationals (2019) and Cornell University’s “Emerging Markets Multinationals Report” 2016 to 2022. Dr. Casanova also is a member of the B20/G20 and Mexico 2012, and a Board member of the Boyce Tompson Institute. She also is a regular contributor to Latin Trade, CNN en español, El País, and Voice of America.

Enrique Dussel Peters, Ph.D. Dr. Dussel is Professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the head of UNAM’s Centre for China-Mexico Studies. He is also coordinator of the China-Latin America Academic Network (Red ALC-China). His research concentrates on economic development, political economy, and trade specialization. His publications include China’s Financing in Latin America and the Caribbean and China’s Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Matt Ferchen, Ph.D. Dr. Ferchen is Senior Research Scholar and Senior Fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. His research focuses on connections between China's domestic and international political economy, especially as they help explain Chinese economic statecraft and economic influence. He previously was a faculty member at Tsinghua University and a scholar with the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, both in Beijing. More recently, he was a Lecturer at Leiden University and a Senior Fellow at LeidenAsiaCentre (Netherlands) and also served as Head of Global China Research at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Germany).

Henry Gao. Prof. Gao is Associate Professor of law at Singapore Management University (Singapore) and Dongfang Scholar Chair Professor at Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. With law degrees from three continents, he started his career as the first Chinese lawyer at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat. He has advised many national governments, the WTO, and World Bank on trade issues. He sits on the Advisory Board of the WTO Chairs Program established in 2009.

Lee Jones, Ph.D. Dr. Jones is Professor of Political Economy and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London (UK). He specializes in Chinese and Southeast Asian domestic and international political economy. He has published extensively on Chinese companies’ engagements in Southeast Asia and beyond and examined how China’s rising outward FDI and other overseas interests are reshaping Chinese foreign policy, including the Belt and Road Initiative and development financing.

Sophie Meunier, Ph.D. Dr. Meunier is Senior Research Scholar at the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University (USA) and Director of Princeton’s Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society and Co-Director of the EU Program. She also serves as Chair of the European Union Association (2023-2024). Meunier authored Trading Voices (Princeton University Press, 2005). Her work deals with the politics of investment screening mechanisms and the political challenges posed by Chinese direct investment in the European Union, including as part of the PRISM project and the Beauty Contests grant. She was made Chevalier des Palmes Academiques by France.

Hwy-Chang Moon, Ph.D. Dr. Moon is Chair Professor at Seoul Business School, aSSIST and Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University, where he previously served as the Dean. Dr. Moon currently is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Business and Economy and has published numerous articles and books on topics relating to Multinational Corporations, Foreign Direct Investment, International Business Strategy, and Economic Development in East Asia with a focus on Korea.

Amitendu Palit, Ph.D. Dr. Palit is Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead (Trade and Economics) at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore (Singapore). Dr. Palit, an economist, also is a member of the World Economic Forum’s trade and investment council. His current research focuses on the regulatory frameworks of mega-RTAs, the impact of mega-RTAs, and regional value chains in the Asia-Pacific. He spent several years in India’s Ministry of Finance.

Danielly Ramos, Ph.D. Dr. Ramos is Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Director of the Center for Global Studies at the University of Brasília. She coordinates the Asia-Latin America and Caribbean research group (ASIALAC). Her research focuses on China’s foreign policy and China-Latin America relations. Her publications probe inter alia China’s Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially connections between Chinese multinational corporations investments and Brazil's domestic political economy.

Francesca Spigarelli, Ph.D. Dr. Spigarelli is full professor of Applied Economics at the University of Macerata (Italy). She teaches at the Department of Law on industrial economics, innovation economics, and economics and has been directing the China Center of the University of Macerata since 2013. Her main research fields concern the impact of foreign direct investments at the macro and meso economic level, the development of the Chinese economy, the analysis of industry dynamics (with particular reference to the environmental and health industries), the third mission of universities, sustainability and circular economy, and industrial policies.

THAM Siew Yean, PhD. Dr. Tham is Emeritus Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia). She also is Visiting Senior Fellow at Regional Economic Studies (RES), ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. She is a Board Member of Global Development Network (GDN) and Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia. She is a specialist in international economics, focusing on foreign direct investment (FDI), including Chinese FDI in Southeast Asia, free trade agreements, and digital trade.

Shujiro Urata, Ph.D. Dr. Urata is Professor of Economics at the Graduate School Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University (Japan). He also is Faculty Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Research Fellow at the Japanese Centre for Economic Research, and Senior Research Advisor, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. He is a specialist in international economics, focusing on Asia-Pacific regional integration and FDI and economic development as well as trade.

Pichamon Yeophantong, PhD. Dr. Yeophantong is an Australian Research Council Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Canberra. A specialist on the political economy of sustainable development, she leads a project examining the socio-economic and environmental impacts of Chinese resource and infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. She also has served as a consultant on development issues to the Africa Progress Panel, Overseas Development Institute, and CARE Australia

ZHENG Yu, Ph.D. Dr. Zheng is a Professor of International Politics at Fudan University (China). He is the author of Governance and Foreign Investment in China, India, and Taiwan: Credibility, Flexibility and International Business (University of Michigan Press,). His research interests include international development, international political economy, China investment and aid in Africa, and business-government relations. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego and did a postdoc fellowship at Harvard University.

Non-Resident Research Fellows

QIU Xiaojuan (China), Ph.D. Dr. Qiu earned her Ph.D. from the School of Advanced International and Area Studies at East China Normal University (China). Her main research interests are international political economy, Chinese foreign economic and political policy, foreign aid, foreign policy analysis, international migration, and Southeast Asian political economy.

Non-Resident Business Research Fellows

Bas Hooijmaaijers, Ph.D. Dr. Hooijmaaijers, who also serves as Corporate Treasurer for the Wong MNC Center, is a Research Fellow at the LINES Institute at KU Leuven. Previously, he worked as Associate Research Professor at East China Normal University. He is the author of Unpacking EU Policy-making towards China (Palgrave, 2021) and has published in top journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, The Pacific Review, Journal of European Integration, Global Governance, Asia Europe Journal, and International Political Science Review. These articles focus on the political economy of the BRICs, EU-China relations, and China’s Digital Silk Road (DSR). His research activities include projects on the political-economic EU-China relations including Chinese foreign direct investment in Europe, and China’s DSR. For additional information, see https://mnccenter.org/officers-and-staff.