Maria Repnikova Keynote Speaker

Dr. Maria Repnikova is a scholar, professor, and award-winning author.

With a distinct focus on China and Russia, Maria’s academic research specialises in media-state relations in China, Chinese soft power and public diplomacy and China-Russia comparisons.

Maria is currently an Associate Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University and non-residential Wilson China Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

In the past, Maria Repnikova was a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center (2020-2021), a visiting fellow at the African Studies Center at Beijing University (2019), and a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication (2014-2016).

As an expert on China’s political communication and influence in the Global South; especially in Africa, Maria’s opinions and insights are highly regarded by the press and policymakers. She has briefed high-level officials, including members of Congress and defense department officials, as well as government officials in Canada, the United Kingdom, European Union, and Ethiopia, amongst other places.

Maria speaks frequently on geopolitics and strategic communication and is regularly interviewed by media publications like CNN, Bloomerg and the South China Morning Post. Her public writings on China’s politics, including propaganda, critical journalism, and digital nationalism have been featured on the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and the Atlantic, amongst other outlets.

Maria Repnikova is the award-winning author of Media Politics in China (2017). The book won Best Book of the Year 2019 by the International Journal of Press and Politics and unravels the webs of an uneasy partnership between critical journalists and the state in China. Her latest book, Chinese Soft Power (2022) presents an in-depth analysis of China’s visions and practices of soft power and draws on her extensive research on Chinese soft power in Africa.

Dr. Repnikova is a talented linguist that speaks fluent Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, in addition to English. She holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford, where Maria was also a Rhodes Scholar.