Diana Fu

Diana Fu is a nonresident fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings and an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto and director of the East Asia Seminar Series at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She is a Public Intellectuals Fellow at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.

Her research examines domestic politics in contemporary China, with a focus on civil society, popular protest, state repression, labor, and authoritarian citizenship. She is leading several projects on changes in state and society under the Xi administration, as well as on authoritarian citizenship: what it means to be a “good” versus “bad” citizen in China today. She is author of the award-winning book “Mobilizing Without the Masses: Control and Contention in China.” Based on political ethnography inside labor organizations, it reveals how China’s migrant workers organized for rights without protesting en masse. It received best book awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the International Studies Association. Her award-winning articles have appeared in top political science and area studies journals.

Fu’s research and commentary on Chinese politics have been featured in BBC World Service, Bloomberg TV, CBC, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Reuters, US News & World Report, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Globe & Mail, and The New York Times, among others. She was a television host and script writer for the TVO documentary series, “China Here and Now.”

She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in politics and a Master of Philosophy in development studies with distinction from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is currently serving as national co-secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship for China. She previously held fellowships at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Affiliations:
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Public Intellectuals Fellow
Rhodes Trust, national co-secretary for the Rhodes Scholarships in China
Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, elected member