Prof Wang Gungwu

Wang Gungwu is professor at the National University of Singapore and Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University, Wang Gungwu is author of an extensive body of work on Chinese cultural change.

Gungwu is a Fellow and former President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science.

In Singapore, he is Chairman of the East Asian Institute, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Heritage Centre and a Board Member of the Institute of Policy Studies and of the Institute of Strategic and Defence Studies.

From 1986 to 1995, Gungwu was Vice Chancellor (President) of the University of Hong Kong. He received his BA (Hons) and MA degrees from the University of Malaya in Singapore, and his PhD at the University of London in 1957.

Dr Pradeep Taneja

Dr Pradeep Taneja joined the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne in January 2006. He teaches primarily in the following areas: Chinese politics, political economy and international relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Born and largely educated in India, he lived and worked in China for more than six years during the 1980s and 90s, and the geographical focus of much of his work is on China. However, he continues to maintain an active interest in Indian politics and regularly writes about it.

During 2002-2004, he lived and worked in Bangkok as part of a multinational team to help set up the graduate program at a new Thai university. Earlier he was Director of International Programs in the Graduate School of Management at La Trobe University. His professional career has combined teaching, consultancy and research activities across various fields – but always with a disciplinary focus on political economy.

Pradeep is frequently interviewed by Australian and foreign media on developments in the Asia-Pacific region.

His current research interests focus on the relationship between politics and business in China, the political implications of China’s energy security policy and the rise of China as a regional and global power. He is also interested in China’s relations with India and the European Union, and is currently co-editing a book on China-EU relations.