I have an on-going research interest in external engagement in the China Studies field. But I was prompted to compile this list by the more immediate concern of providing some information for my incoming cohort of students, whom I will encourage to start engaging with the huge number of China professionals active on the platform. Looking around on Twitter, I found some excellent lists to help find China correspondents, media and blogs etc (for instance, Josh Chin’s lists). But I couldn’t find a list of China scholars and neither could my followers direct me to one. This piqued my curiosity as to how many China scholars are actually on Twitter, and more importantly, how many are actively using it as a tool for disseminating information related to their research interests. The result is this list, a play on Foreign Policy’s annual Twitterati 100 feature.

If you are interested in reading a more detailed rationale with some background on external engagement in China Studies, I will have another post soon. If you simply want to follow the list on Twitter, it is available here. What follows is an annotated version of the list, on which people are not ranked or ordered (I’ll arrange by field or interests another time). If you’re on this list and I messed up your affiliation or bio let me know.

A very quick word on selection methods. I imposed several criteria: ‘scholars’ had to be currently employed at a University in a research and/or teaching role (this excludes recovering academics, policy analysts at think tanks, and collectives) and to have academic publications on China (and/or Taiwan). Grad students may ultimately form a separate category: here I limit myself to 6 impressive China Studies Grad Students/ABDs to look out for. Tweeting activity had to reach a certain threshold in terms of number of tweets, most recent activity, and number of following/followers. I have focused primarily on Euro/US academics or Euro/US academic institutions. With apologies, I leave a more comprehensive investigation for another day. I conducted the search manually and the list is obviously biased toward people I know. If you know of a more systematic method please tell me. Finally, following me was NOT a criterion for inclusion on this list and I do not include myself on it. Oversights, errors etc let me know @jonlsullivan

China Studies Scholar Twitterati

Jeff Wasserstrom ‏ (@jwassers) a history Professor at UC Irvine, but that doesn’t begin to cover the scope of his activities (which include editing the China section of the LA Review of Books and the flagship Journal of Asian Studies). Writes and tweets frequently on diverse issues relating to China.

Laura Luehrmann (@LauraLuehrmann) is Assistant Professor in Political Science at Wright State. Research and tweets on comparative and Chinese politics and state-society relations.

Johan Lagerkvist ‏ (@Chinaroader) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Has published extensively about the Chinese internet, with research interests and tweets on Chinese foreign policy and increasingly China-Africa issues.

Min Jiang ‏ (@mindyjiang) is Associate Professor of Communication at UNC-Charlotte. A former editor at CCTV, she researches and tweets on the Chinese internet and media.

Adam Cathcart ‏(@adamcathcart) is a Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Leeds. Strong research interest in North Korea and PRC-DPRK relations. Frequent tweets on the minutiae of North Korean political life. Member of the FP-100.

Sam Geall ‏ (@samgeall) is Lecturer in Human Geography at Oxford and Executive Editor at the environment-focused NGO China Dialogue. Research and tweets primarily on environmental issues in China.

Linda Yueh ‏ (Verified account @lindayueh) is amazing, no other word for it. A card carrying China scholar with affiliations to Oxford and London Business School, and simultaneously the BBC’s Chief Business Correspondent. Research and tweets on Chinese economy, business, finance.

Kerry Brown ‏ (@Bkerrychina) is a Professor and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Former head of the Chatham House Asia Program, he is a leading expert and frequent commentator on Chinese politics, particularly elite politics.

Victor Shih ‏ (@vshih2) is a Political Economist at Northwestern. Research and tweets on Chinese politics, the economy and finance.

Andrew Erickson ‏(@andrewserickson) is Associate Professor at the US Naval College. Research and tweets on Chinese security, with a bit of IR and defense analysis.

M. Taylor Fravel ‏ (@fravel) is Associate Professor in International relations at MIT. Research and tweets on Chinese foreign policy and security issues.

Deborah Brautigam ‏ (@D_Brautigam) is Professor at American University. Research and tweets on the engagement between China and Africa.

Michel Hockx ‏ (@mhockx) is Professor of Chinese literature at SOAS, and Director of the SOAS China Institute (Disclosure: Michel will be my boss from Jan 2014). Research and tweets on the sociology of literature, cyberliterature and censorship.

Sam Crane ‏ (@UselessTree) is Professor of Political Science at Williams College. Particular interest in the connection between Chinese politics and ancient philosophy.

Heather Inwood (@heatherinwood) Lecturer in Chinese Studies at Manchester. Teaching, research  and tweets on contemporary Chinese poetry, pop culture and digital media.

Ralph Litzinger (@BeijingNomad) is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Women’s Studies at Duke with interests in environmental issues, urbanization and Tibet.

Gary King (@kinggary) is a world renowned social scientist and Director of IQSS at Harvard. Not a China scholar per se, but has recently published some incredible work on censorship and the Chinese internet. It’s a shame his China grad student co-authors (@mollyeroberts and @jenjpan) don’t tweet much, but I imagine Gary keeps them busy.

Clayton Dube 杜克雷 ‏ (@claydube) is Director of the USC-China Institute and manager of C-Pol (a closed list for China professionals). Research on US-China perceptions and econ/political change.

Dali L. Yang ‏ (@Dali_Yang) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Research and tweets on politics and the Chinese economy

Guobin Yang ‏ (@Yangguobin) is Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at UPenn. Research and tweets on the Chinese internet.

Kate Merkel-Hess (@kmerkelhess) is Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies Penn State. Research interests in modern Chinese history.

Charles Laughlin (@charleslaughlin) is Professor of Modern Chinese Literature at the University of Virginia. Tweets on politics, society and pop culture.

Jeremy Wallace (@jerometenk)  is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ohio State. Research and tweets on Chinese and authoritarian politics more broadly.

Alex Wang (@greenlawchina) teaches at UCLA School of Law. Research and tweets on China’s environment and energy issues.

Lynette H Ong (@onglynette) is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Research and tweets on China’s political economy.

Donald Clarke ‏ (@donaldcclarke) is Professor at George Washington University Law School. Research and tweets on modern Chinese law.

Gregory Lee 利大英 (@GBLee) is Professor of Chinese and Transcultural Studies at the University of Lyon. Interests in Chinese diaspora and migration.

Jessica Chen Weiss (@jessicacweiss) is Assistant Professor of international relations and Chinese politics at Yale. Research and tweets on Chinese foreign relations, with particular focus on Sino-Japan relations.

Craig Clunas (@CraigClunas) is Professor of the History of Art at Oxford. Research and tweets on Chinese art.

Kerim Friedman (@kerim) is Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. Research and tweets related to anthropology and film with a focus on Taiwan.

Susan Fernsebner (@sfern) is Associate Professor of Chinese History at the University of Mary Washington. Research and tweets on China’s expos, childhood, and the digital humanities.

John Delury (@JohnDelury) is Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei. Research and tweets on modern Chinese history, plus South and North Korea.

Steven W. Lewis 刘琼毅 (@LiuQiongyi) is a China Fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice. Research and tweets on central/local relations, energy policy and pol comm.

Florian Schneider (@schneiderfa77)  is Lecturer in Chinese Politics at Leiden. Interests in Chinese politics, media, and digital.

Jonathan Mair (@urtnas) is a Lecturer in Religions and Theology at Manchester University. Research interests in social anthropology and, particularly, Buddhism.

Stephen R. Platt (@stephenrplatt) is a professor of modern Chinese history at UMass-Amherst.

Cobus van Staden (@stadenesque) is a post-doc in Political Science and the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch. Research and tweets on East Asian soft power expansion in Africa.

iginio gagliardone (@iginioe) is a Research Fellow in International Communication at Oxford. Research and tweets on the media, African politics and China-Africa relations.

Nick Admussen (@nadmussen)  is Assistant Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell. Research and tweets on contemporary Chinese literature, poetry and Chinese-English translation.

Ketty W. Chen (@HelloKetty1998) is a Visiting Scholar at National Taiwan University. Research and tweets on Taiwanese social movements.

Julie Yu-Wen Chen (@julieyuwenchen) is Lecturer in Government at University College Cork. Research and tweets on cross-Strait issues, Uighur issues, ethnicity and identity.

Timothy S. Rich 芮宗泰 (@timothysrich) Assistant Prof in Political Science at Western Kentucky. Research and tweets on East Asian politics and elections, with special interest in Taiwan.

ann lee ‏ @AnnLeesays is currently Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at NYU. Focus on the Chinese economy, business and finance.

James Wicks (@jawicks75) is Associate Professor of Literature and Film Studies at Point Loma Nazarene University in California. Research and tweets on transnational film and pop culture in Chinese, Taiwanese and comparative contexts.

*Please note that James Wicks was on the original Twitter list, but due to a transcription error I omitted him from the original post. James has graciously forgiven me!

Bonus: 6 China Studies Grad Students/ABD to look for.

Leta Hong Fincher (@LetaHong) is currently ABD at Tsinghua. Research interests (and an international profile) in gender issues in China.

Andrew Chubb (@zhubochubo) is a PhD student at the University of Western Australia. Focus on the South China Sea, Chinese nationalism and foreign policy.

Maria Repnikova (@MariaRepnikova) is currently wrapping up her dissertation at Oxford prior to taking on a post-doc in the US. Research on media and governance in China, with subsidiary interests on Russia.

Dan Garrett (@DanGarrett97) is a PhD student at City University of HK. Interests in Chinese cyberspace, cyber security and all matters digital.

Maura Cunningham (@mauracunningham) is a PhD student in Chinese history at Irvine. Research and tweets on Chinese society, literature, women etc.

Michal Thim (@michalthim) is Steve Tsang’s PhD student at the China Policy Institute at Nottingham. Research and tweets on Taiwanese politics and security issues.

If you have any comments, corrections, suggested additions etc, get in touch @jonlsullivan. (I’m aware the list doesn’t quite add up to 50!)