William Hurst Keynote Speaker

William Hurst is the Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he also co-directs the Centre for Geopolitics, and is a Fellow of Wolfson College. His scholarship weaves comparative politics and international relations, with particular attention to historical and sub-national dynamics to explain macro-level outcomes. Hurst earned a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (2005) after undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Chicago. He previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Toronto, and Northwestern University, and held fellowships at Oxford and Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study.

Hurst’s research engages core questions in Chinese politics, Indonesian politics, international relations of East and Southeast Asia, and US–China relations. His first book, The Chinese Worker after Socialism (2009), remains a touchstone on labour politics, political economy, and welfare reform, while his second, Ruling Before the Law (2018), offers the first systematic comparison of legal regimes in China and Indonesia. All of his work blends archival, documentary, ethnographic, and sometimes quantitative evidence and analysis. He is now writing a comparative historical investigation of land politics in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, reframing debates on state formation and development. Alongside his monographs, he has edited four volumes and published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, op-eds, and essays.

Beyond academia, Hurst is a sought-after commentator on foreign policy, international relations, and global political trends. His knowledge of Southeast Asia complements his China expertise, enabling nuanced analysis of regional security, development, and great power politics. He regularly briefs officials, corporate leaders, think tanks, and media outlets, providing grounded insight on subjects ranging from China’s domestic governance to the global implications of subnational, national, and regional events and trends.