Haval Ahmad,
Associate Faculty, School of Humanitarian Studies and School of Leadership
Royal Roads University
Haval Ahmad is an Associate Faculty in the School of Humanitarian Studies and School of Leadership at Royal Roads University, teaching human security and peacebuilding, transdisciplinary perspectives on international justice, and Geo-Political Dynamics of Global Communities. His research interest includes political violence, security studies, de-radicalization, terrorism, and counter violent extremisms (CVE).
His current work includes a co-authored book that looks into de-radicalization cases around the globe, including case studies in Southeast Asia, EU, Canada and the MENA region. Other areas of Ahmad’s current and proposed work include analyzing geopolitics and foreign intervention, including the increased China intervention and the impact on stability and human security in the MENA region.
Since 2016, Ahmad has been actively working on different research projects that involved collaboration with researchers in Canada, the United Kingdom, and within the Middle East.
Haval holds a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK.
Satwinder Kaur Bains, PhD
Director of the South Asian Studies
Dr. Satwinder Kaur Bains is the Director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley and an Associate Professor in Social Cultural Media Studies, College of Arts.
Dr. Bains’ critical analysis of India’s multilingual policy and planning has fueled her interest to study the impact of language, culture and identity on South Asian Canadian migration, settlement, and integration. Her research includes and intersects cross-cultural education with a focus on anti-racist curriculum implementation; race, racism, and ethnicity; identity politics; Sikh feminist ideology; migration and the South Asian Canadian Diaspora and Punjabi Canadian cultural historiography.
Satwinder has extensive years of professional experience in community development and has worked with organizations in the area of cross-cultural mental health, immigrant women, youth and families and board development, diversity, equity, inclusion, cross cultural development, women’s rights and socio-religious interfaith dialogue She serves the community as a diversity educator, community developer and community activist in the field of anti-racism and immigrant settlement integration. She is a consummate community advocate and volunteer and has assisted numerous community organizations develop and grow. She continues to serve on numerous committees and organizations locally, nationally and internationally.
sbano@tru.ca
Saira Bano, PhD
Department of Philosophy. History and Politics
Thompson Rivers University
Saira Bano is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Thompson Rivers University. Her primary research interests are International Relations theories, security issues, the nuclear non-proliferation regime, nuclear weapons concerns in South Asia, and the intersection of domestic politics and foreign policy. She received her PhD from the Centre for Military, Security, and Strategic Studies (CMSS) at the University of Calgary. She is recipient of the Doctoral Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Graduate Research Award from the Simons Foundation, and the Kodikara Award from the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS). She also served as a visiting research fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. Prior to her position at Thompson Rivers University, she taught at the University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and the Calgary campus of the University of Lethbridge.
t.brydges@utoronto.ca
Taylor Brydges, PhD
Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney,
Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Urban Environments, University of Toronto Mississauga
Dr. Brydges is an economic geographer from Toronto, Canada. She has published on a range of topics including the circular economy, sustainability management, and global production networks. Working with Professor Mary Hanlon, she is engaged in a research project investigating Canada’s shared role in supporting garment worker safety in Bangladesh.
Dr. Brydges holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and a Master of Arts in Human Geography from the University of Toronto, Canada. In 2017, she completed her PhD in Human Geography at Uppsala University, Sweden. She has worked in Australia, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland.
gtchin@yorku.ca
Gregory T. Chin, PhD
Associate Professor,
York University
Co-Director, Emerging Global Governance Project, Global Policy journal
Gregory T. Chin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University, Canada. He is the Mayling Birney Global Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science from Autumn 2022- Spring 2023. Chin is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute at The John Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, and Co-Director of the Emerging Global Governance (EGG) Project with Global Policy journal.
Chin has published widely on the political economy of China, Asia, and the BRICS, global finance, international money and global governance. He is a member of the Advisory or Editorial Boards of the journals Review of the International Political Economy, Global Governance, and The Journal of East Asian Studies.
Dr. Chin served in the Government of Canada, 2000-2006, in Ottawa at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Canadian International Development Agency, as First Secretary at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.
Kenneth.1christie@royalroads.ca
Kenneth Christie, PhD
Program Head of Human Security and Peacebuilding,
Royal Roads University
Dr. Kenneth Christie is the Program Head and a Professor in the Human Security and Peacebuilding graduate programs. Christie is a political scientist, author, editor and international academic who has taught and conducted research at universities in the U.S., Singapore, South Africa, Norway and Dubai. Working all over the world has given him a unique perspective on peace, development and human security. His work has focused on issues of human rights, security and democratization. He is widely published as an author and editor with eleven books to his credit.
His most recent book, co-edited with Marion Boulby, Migration, Refugees and Human Security in the Mediterranean and MENA was published by Palgrave MacMillan (2018). Today, he is working on issues of human security and its links to ethnic and state formation/failure in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Christie is also working on issues of de-radicalization, terrorism and human rights as well as populism (historical and contemporary) and corporate social responsibility. The work he produces is truly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature.
Experience:
Christie joined Royal Roads in 2009, after seven years working at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates where he was director of global studies and supervised the social science internship program. He is a senior associate member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and has been a visiting professor at Oxford University, the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and universities in Sweden and Denmark as well as the Philippines and Cyprus. He has also conducted evaluations of human rights NGOs for the Norwegian government in Southeast Asia.
Pclark@tru.ca
Paul Clark, DBA
Professor,
Thompson Rivers University
Born in Oliver, my interest in the Canada and the Asia-Pacific Policy Project is based on my interest in the political, social, economic, and technological activities involving Asia and Greater China.
As an educator at Thompson Rivers University since 2007, the focus of my academic career has been in the areas of marketing, international business, and strategy; areas increasingly influenced by China.
Moreover, my interest in Asia and the Greater China region is also based on my familiarity with these geographies. Specifically, having lived and travelled extensively throughout Asia, I have a keen interest and high level of practical understanding of the cultural and business environments in Asia. While living in Asia, I have gained commercial experience within the “the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)” industry from several vantage points, including as a:
- Vendor Quality Control Supervisor for a Canadian owned IT export company in Taipei,
- Regional General Manager for a large US owned JV wine wholesaler in Shanghai,
- Retail Buying Manager for a large JV grocery chain in Shanghai, and
- An external management consultant (marketing management-training programs to multinationals in the southern China markets of Hong Kong and Guangzhou).
As an academic researcher, I am interested in qualitative research opportunities in the fast moving consumer products industry, HE branding, experiential education, and B2B marketing. I look forward to discussing potential collaborative research opportunities.
dade@cwf.ca
Carlo Dade
Director of the Trade & Investment Centre
As Director of the Trade & Investment Centre, Carlo Dade develops and leads research to promote growth and profitability in western Canada’s export economy. Carlo has a long history in international public policy most recently as Honourary Senior Fellow in the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI).
Carlo has been a leading voice in debates on recent Canadian trade agreements, the importance of trade infrastructure to national prosperity, Canada-China relations with a focus on agricultural trade, and western state-provincial relationships in North America. He has a reputation for big-picture thinking and is a leading global expert on pan-Pacific trade, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Pacific Alliance trade blocs. He is one of Canada’s leading commentators on North American competitiveness and Canada-Mexico relations. Carlo is a highly sought-after media commentator throughout North America.
manfred.elfstrom@ubc.ca
Manfred Elfstrom
Assistant Professor,
University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Manfred Elfstrom is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, Philosophy, and Political Science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. He is the author of Workers and Change in China: Resistance, Repression, Responsiveness (Cambridge University Press 2021). His work has appeared in Comparative Politics, China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, and Industrial & Labor Relations Review, among other publications. Dr. Elfstrom has a doctorate from Cornell University and was previously a Postdoctoral Scholar and Teaching Fellow at the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations and a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Before entering academia, he worked with non-profits supporting workers’ rights and improved grassroots governance in China.
scott.harrison@asiapacific.ca
Scott Harrison, PhD
Senior Program Manager, Engaging Asia at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada
Scott Harrison (Ph.D., History) is Senior Program Manager, Engaging Asia at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a not-for-profit organization focused on Canada-Asia relations. The Engaging Asia pillar examines civil society, people-to-people ties, Indigenous peoples’ trans-Pacific connections, and city and provincial-level international strategies, diplomacy, and policy. In this role, he has written over a dozen policy pieces, edited dozens more, and also plays a lead role in producing Asia Watch, a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting events, trends, and issues throughout the region that matter to Canadians.
Academic publications include “Canadian Provinces and Foreign Policy in Asia,” International Journal (with C.L. Labrecque) (2018); “The Cold War, the San Francisco System and Indigenous Peoples,” in The San Francisco System and Its Legacies, (2015); and “The Indigenous Ainu of Japan at the Time of the Åland Settlement,” in Northern Territories, Asia-Pacific Regional Conflicts and the Aland Experience (2009).
He is also an academic advisor and contributor to AinuToday.com, the first English knowledge-sharing platform for an international audience to learn about contemporary Indigenous Ainu (Japan) voices, issues, arts, and rights.
MHanlon@okanagan.bc.ca
https://maryfhanlon.com/
Mary Hanlon, PhD
Professor of Sociology,
Okanagan College
Dr. Hanlon is a critical sociologist based in Kelowna, Canada. Her research themes and interests include transnational social movements and related activism (online and offline), work & labour rights, environmental justice, global fashion and apparel production and consumption, research methods, and knowledge dissemination. She has published in such peer-reviewed journals as Fashion Theory, Dialogues in Human Geography, Australian Feminist Studies, and Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. Her current projects include working alongside Dr. Brydges to explore Canada’s shared role in supporting garment worker safety in Bangladesh, as well as working on a book project under contract with Palgrave, alongside Dr. Niamh Moore (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), Dr. Martina Karels (St Francis College, New York), and Dr. Nikki Dunne (Family Carers, Ireland), on “DIY Academic Archiving.”
Dr. Hanlon holds a PhD (2019) in Sociology from The University of Edinburgh, where she investigated transnational fashion and apparel related efforts in the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh. She also holds a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from Athabasca University (2009), a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies (2005), and a Diploma in Textile Arts (2001).
michael_hathaway@sfu.ca
Michael Hathaway,
Professor of Anthropology & Director of the David Lam Centre for Asian Studies,
Simon Fraser University
Michael J. Hathaway is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the David Lam Centre for Asian Studies at Simon Fraser University. His research explores the ways China is engaging with and simultaneously producing global formations of environmentalism, Indigeneity and feminism. His prize-winning first monograph, Environmental Winds: Making the Global in Southwest China (California 2013) explored the rise of environmental politics from the 1980s-2010s. His second book, by Princeton University Press (2022), What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds they Make, shows how a critical mushroom economy is shaping the lives of Tibetan and Yi pastoralists in the Himalayan foothills. Presently, he is researching the hidden role of Mao-era China in unintentionally fostering the global movement for Indigenous rights.
jack.hayes@kpu.ca
Jack Hayes, PhD
Associate Professor & Chair of the
Department of History,
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Jack Hayes joined the Asian Studies and History faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2013 and is the chair of the History Department at KPU (to fall 2022). He is also a research associate with the Centre for Chinese Research at UBC’s Institute of Asian Research (and with UBC’s SPPGA) on the project China’s Environment, Science, & Sustainability (CESS). He has served on the editorial board and as Assistant Editor (reviews, Asia) for the journal Environmental History and Associate Editor (China) for Pacific Affairs.
Dr. Hayes’ research examines late imperial and modern Chinese and Tibetan environmental history, resource development and ethnic relations in western China, and environmental policy development in China and wider East Asia. He has published a number of articles on China’s environmental history and policy developments, ranging from recent research on fire ecosystems and policy, wetlands and warfare in Chinese history, and natural and human induced disasters in modern history. His book A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands (Lanham, MA: Lexington, 2013) is a social and environmental history of Sino-Tibetan north Sichuan. His current research project delves into the historical policies, science, and boots-on-the-ground development of China’s wildfire and peri-urban firefighting, with occasional asides into urban fire history, policy structures and environmental policy in the Pyrocene. He is also working on a book on natural and human-induced disasters in modern global history (Taylor & Francis). In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Hayes has served as a consultant on a number of environment and history projects in China and the United States.
kristen.hopewell@ubc.ca
Kristen Hopewell, PhD
Associate Professor;
Director, Liu Institute for Global Issues;
Co-Director, Centre for Chinese Research
University of British Columbia
Kristen Hopewell is Canada Research Chair in Global Policy in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues, and Co-Director of the Centre for Chinese Research. Her research specializes in international trade, global governance, industrial policy and development, with a focus on emerging powers.
Her academic research has appeared in journals such as Review of International Political Economy, Regulation & Governance, International Affairs, Global Environmental Politics and New Political Economy.
Her policy writings have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, The Globe and Mail, The Hill Times and Global Policy, and her analysis has featured in venues such as the BBC, CNN, CGTN, Bloomberg, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, The Chicago Tribune, East Asia Forum, The Indian Express, Latin America Advisor and Foreign Policy.
Dr. Hopewell’s research has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, a UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Future Research Leaders Grant, the UK Global Research Challenges Fund, US National Science Foundation (NSF), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Prior to entering academia, she worked as a trade official for the Canadian government and as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley.
She is a Wilson China Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.
quinton@quintonhuang.ca
qhuang98@student.ubc.ca
Website: http://quintonhuang.ca/
Quinton Huang
Fellow, Institute of Asian Research,
Centre for Southeast Asian Research;
MA Student, Department of History
University of British Columbia
Quinton Huang is an MA student at the Department of History and Fellow at the Institute of Asian Research’s Centre for Southeast Asia Research at the University of British Columbia. His graduate research focuses on the social and intellectual history of informal housing settlements in postwar colonial Hong Kong, engaging with the history of colonialism, the Cold War, refugees, maritime worlds, and borderlands in East and Southeast Asia. He was previously a Junior Research Scholar at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada from 2020 to 2022, working with Dr. Scott Harrison under the Engaging Asia pillar on Canada-Asia subnational relations, international cooperation, civil society, media and culture.
His publications include: Toward an Ecosystem Approach: COVID-19, Canada-Asia Pacific Relations, and International Organizations (co-authored with Scott Harrison, Natasha Fox, and Amy Zhou); “Citizen or City Diplomacy? Diplomatic Co-Production and the Middle Ground in Municipal Twinning Relationships” in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy (co-authored with Scott Harrison); and a forthcoming article in the Canadian Political Science Review on Canada-Asia non-central government twinning relationships (co-authored with Scott Harrison). Outside of these two main research areas, Quinton also serves as a board member of Strait Talk, a transnational civil society organization dedicated to fostering dialogue between young professionals in China, Taiwan, the United States, and other communities on the Taiwan Strait conflict. He earned a BA in History and East Asian Studies from Brown University in 2019, and has worked or conducted research in Hong Kong and Vietnam.
khan.islam@ubc.ca
Khan Islam, Phd
Lecturer of Economics,
University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Dr. Khan Jahirul Islam has completed Ph.D. in Economics from the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba. Khan started teaching as an instructor at the University of Manitoba in 2011 and the University of Winnipeg in 2013, before he was appointed as a lecturer of economics at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus in August 2016. His major fields of research are Economic Development, Financial Inclusion, and Public Policy, and. Khan has published a book chapter and scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals including the World Development and Journal of International Development. Khan’s ongoing research projects include analyzing households’ vulnerability to poverty in Canada, the Credit card debt puzzle in Canada, and the financial stress of Canadian households.
jainbm2001@gmail.com
B.M. Jain
Senior Professor,
South Asia Studies Centre,
University of Rajasthan
B.M. Jain is a former senior professor of political science and international relations at South Asia Studies Centre, University of Rajasthan, India. He has been visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan (Canada), Visiting Professor, Cleveland State University (Ohio),Visiting Professor at State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, Visiting Professor, UNESCO Chair for Peace, Jaume1 University, Spain, Visiting Fellow, University of Hong Kong, Summer Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania ,Philadelphia, Visiting Scholar, Henry L. Stimson Centre(Washington, D.C), Visiting Fellow, Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Seoul.
Professor Jain has authored/edited over twenty books. His books include The Geopsychology Theory of International Relations in the 21st Century: Escaping the Ignorance Trap(Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, 2021), South Asia Conundrum: The Great Power Gamble(Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield, 2019); China’s Soft Power Diplomacy in South Asia: Myth or Reality? ( Lexington Books: Lanham, MD,USA, 2017),India-US Relations in the Age of Uncertainty(London and New York: Routledge , 2016),Global Power : India’s Foreign Policy( Lexington Books, 2008 and 2010); India in the New South Asia( I.B. Tauris, London, 2010 and 2011). Articles : One hundred, of them nearly sixty articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Pacific Affairs, The Round Table, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology Journal, Asian Profile, Asian Studies, Indian Journal of American Studies, International Journal of China Studies, China Report, Journal of Diplomacy and Foreign Policy.
Invited Lectures Abroad: universities/research institutes, including University of British Columbia, Vancouver(Canada),Illinois University (Urbana-Champaign), Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana), Pittsburgh University(Kansas),North Carolina University( Durham),South Carolina University(Columbia), Pace University (New York City), State University of New York, Binghamton(NY), McGill University(Montreal, Canada), Cleveland State University( Ohio), Humboldt University(Berlin),Leipzig University(Leipzig), Free Berlin University(Berlin), Bremen University, Kassel University(Kassel), Bundeswehr University(Hamburg), Bonn University(Bonn), Kiel University(Kiel) ,Osnabruck University(Osnabruck), Heidelberg University(Heidelberg), Hanover University(Hanover), Goethe University(Frankfurt), Bremen University(Bremen), Dresden University(Dresden), Konstanz University(Konstanz), Hague (The Netherlands), Oxford(England),Gandhian Studies Centre(London), University of Hong Kong(Hong Kong), Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Kungnam University(Seoul, South Korea), Tokyo International University(Tokyo).
wjap@tru.ca
Warveni Jap, DBA
Assistant Professor,
Chair, Department of Marketing
Thompson Rivers University
Warveni Jap, DBA, has served as the elected department chair of Marketing & International Business within the School of Business and Economics at Thompson Rivers University since 2019 and an assistant professor since 2017.
Warveni Jap’s Research Interests Include: International and Global Marketing; Brand Management; Marketing (specifically Services, Relationship and Business); International Business; Integrated Marketing Management (IMC); Marketing Management and Strategy; China and Asia Marketing; Cross-Cultural Management; International Business Ethics; Strategic Leadership and Management; and Emerging Markets.
Awards and Achievements:
2022 TRU EDI Fellowship Award
2021 TRU Top 50 Influencers
2020-2021 SoBE Council Award in Services
2019 TRU Team Coach for BC MBA Games 2019 Champions — November 2019 2018 TRU Teaching Excellence Award — April 2018
15-year Employment Service Award at TRU — April 2017
2015 World Religion Conference, Buddhism Perspective Representative
2013 TRU Faculty Award for Excellence in Internationalization — April 2013 10-Year Employment Service Award at TRU — April 2012
tkading@tru.ca
Website:
https://kamino.tru.ca/experts/home/main/bio.php?id=tkading
Terry Kading, PhD
Associate Professor, Political Science,
Thompson Rivers University
Dr. Terry Kading’s research interests have been in the areas of Comparative Politics (Developing Nations) with an initial focus on Latin America (Nicaragua & Guatemala), and then on Canadian Government (local government and federalism) as a researcher through a Community-University Research Award (CURA) on Mapping Quality of Life and the Culture of Small Cities (2006-12). The latter project resulted in several research reports in collaboration with the municipal government and community organizations in Kamloops, B.C., and two edited collections, No Straight Lines: Local Leadership and the Path from Government to Governance in Small Cities (University of Calgary Press, 2018) and (with Christopher Walmsley) Small cities, Big Issues: Reconceiving Community in a Neoliberal Era (Athabasca University Press, 2018).
His recent research focus is on understanding federal, provincial, and urban policy challenges in the 21st century in relation to the areas of trade, investment, immigration, and international education. He teaches courses on Canadian and American government, contemporary ideologies, federalism in Canada, and Canadian public policy and administration, and is a program and thesis advisor within the Master of Science program in Environmental Science at Thompson Rivers University.
jleean@tru.ca
Jiyoung Lee-An, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor,
Thompson Rivers University
Dr. Jiyoung Lee-An is Assistant Teaching Professor of Sociology at Thompson Rivers University. She is a critical race feminist sociologist and interdisciplinary scholar from South Korea. Her research and teaching interests are migration, feminism, critical race theories, transnationalism, activism, social justice, decolonial feminist theories, critical multiculturalism, Korean studies, Canadian studies and comparative studies.
Dr. Lee-An understands teaching, research and activism to be integrated practices, and she links her grassroots experiences in South Korea and Canada with her scholarly work
eric.li@ubc.ca
Eric Li, PhD
Associate Professor,
The University of British Columbia
Dr. Eric Li joined the Faculty of Management at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan campus in 2011. His Ph.D. in Marketing is from York University, and he received his M.A. in Anthropology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Li’s research interests include social enterprise and social innovation, not-for-profit marketing, pro-social behaviour, multicultural marketing and consumption, consumer well-being, health promotion, consumer privacy, food economy and market system, fashion and popular culture, and digital marketing and social media marketing.
His work has been published and presented in a number of academic journals and conferences such as the Association for Consumer Research, the American Marketing Association, the Academy of Management Conference, and the Consumer Culture Theory Conference. Eric also served as a reviewer in many academic journals and conferences such as Journal of Business Research, Human Relations, Consumption Markets and Culture, Marketing Letters, International Marketing Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Canadian Journal of Administrative Science, and Journal of Interactive Advertising as well as at the Association for Consumer Research, American Marketing Association, Consumer Culture Theory, and Global Marketing conferences. In 2013, he served as the track-chair of the China Marketing International Conference. In 2017, Dr. Li started serving on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences. In 2021, Dr. Li served as the co-chair of the Film Festival of the Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference.
In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Li also serves as the regular board member of the Behavioural Research Ethics Board of UBC’s Okanagan campus and the Scholarships and Awards Committee of the Faculty of Graduate Studies since 2015. He is also one of the faculty advisors for the campus-wide co-op program at UBC’s Okanagan campus. Dr. Li is currently a member of Blockchain@UBC – a collaborative research cluster focusing on Blockchain Technology, the associate member of UBC’s Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention, and the faculty associate at the York Centre for Asian Research.
jbmllr@gmail.com
Jonathan Berkshire Miller
Director & Senior Fellow on Indo-Pacific – Macdonald Laurier Institute
Jonathan Berkshire Miller is an international affairs professional with expertise on security, defense and geo-economic issues in the Indo-Pacific. He has held a variety of positions in the private and public sector. Currently, he is a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). Miller is also director and senior fellow of the Indo-Pacific program at the Ottawa-based Macdonald Laurier Institute, Senior Fellow on East Asia for the Tokyo-based Asian Forum Japan and the Director and co-founder of the Council on International Policy.
Previously, he was an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Tokyo. Other former appointments and roles include terms as a Distinguished Fellow with the Asia- Pacific Foundation of Canada, and Senior Fellow on East Asia for the New York- based EastWest Institute. Miller also held a fellowship on Japan with the Pacific Forum CSIS from 2013-16, and has held a number of other visiting fellowships on Asian security matters, including at JIIA and the National Institute of Defense Studies (Ministry of Defense – Japan).
In addition, Miller previously spent nearly a decade working on economic and security issues related to Asia with the Canadian federal government and worked with both the foreign ministry and the security community. He regularly attends track 1.5 and track 2 dialogues in the region and lectures to universities, think-tanks, corporations and others across the Asia-Pacific region on security and defense issues. He regularly consults, provides advice and presents to the private sector, multilateral organizations and governments on regional geopolitics.
Jonathan is a regular contributor to several journals, magazines and newspapers on Asia-Pacific security issues including The Economist Intelligence Unit, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and Nikkei Asian Review. He has also published widely in other outlets including Forbes, Newsweek Japan, the Globe and Mail, the World Affairs Journal, the Japan Times, the Mainichi Shimbun, the ASAN Forum, Jane’s Intelligence Review and Global Asia. Miller has been interviewed and quoted on regional security issues across a wide range of media including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Nikkei, the Japan Times, Asahi Shimbun, the Voice of America, the Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV and ABC news
bnikku@tru.ca
Bala Nikku, PhD
Professor of Social Work and Human Service,
Thompson Rivers University
Bala Nikku, PhD hails from an agricultural family in India. Bala Joined Thompson Rivers University School of Social Work and Human Service as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Dr. Nikku served in the academia and grassroots social work practice in India, Nepal, Malaysia and held adjunct positions in the UK and Thailand. He served as founding director of the Nepal School of Social Work (2005- 2011).
I have been a social work and social policy teaching faculty, researcher and practitioner for the last 20 years. I bring an interdisciplinary, racial and cultural safety to my workspace and classrooms. I had the opportunity to collaborate a diverse group to carry out research projects that are curiosity driven and find solutions that empower communities.
As an interdisciplinary policy researcher, I am interested in politics of policies (disasters, health, poverty) and their framing and implementation on the ground. My research focus continues to be on South Asia a dynamic but fragmented, resource poor, culturally diverse region. I am currently part of a research collective (www.canada-asia-researchcollective.org) and interested in applying rights-based approaches to human displacement. We are currently involved in book projects and covid19 epidemic management and analyzing whether the current regional frameworks are adequate enough to protect the rights of epidemic victims and internally displaced persons.
ramraj@uvic.ca
Victor Ramraj, PhD
Professor of Law, Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations,
University of Victoria
Dr. Victor V. Ramraj is Professor of Law and Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2017, he has served as Director of the of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. Before returning to Canada in 2014, he spent 16 years at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law, and was twice seconded to the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London. He also teaches regularly in the LLM in Business Law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. His recent research interests and publications span comparative public law, transnational regulation, and the regulatory challenges arising from the state-company relationship. He has published dozens of articles and book chapters in leading publications in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and has seven edited and co-edited collections to his credit, including Emergency Powers in Asia: Exploring the Limits of Legality (with A.K. Thiruvengadam, Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Covid-19 in Asia: Law and Policy Contexts(Oxford University Press, 2020).
jeshaw@tru.ca
Website: https://kamino.tru.ca/experts/home/main/bio.php?id=jeshaw
Jennifer E. Shaw, PhD
Assistant Teaching Professor of Sociology and Politics,
Thompson Rivers University
Dr. Jennifer Shaw is Assistant Teaching Professor of Sociology and Politics at Thompson Rivers University. Her research explores migration and transnationalism in childhood and youth with a particular focus on labour migration from the Philippines to Canada. With the support of a Vanier-Canada Graduate Scholarship, Dr. Shaw examined prolonged child-parent separation and reunification in Canada from the perspectives of young people living apart from their mothers. Her other research interests include migrant labour, unequal childhoods, life projects and well-being, and ethnography.
Dr. Shaw holds a PhD in Anthropology from Simon Fraser University and previously taught in Sociology and Anthropology and Labour Studies at SFU. She is a researcher with the Understanding Precarity in BC SSHRC-funded partnership, a six-year joint initiative led by the Morgan Centre for Labour Research and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Her research is featured in Children & Society (2018), Anthropology of Work Review (2020), and Global Studies of Childhood (2022). She is also Co-Editor of NEOS: A Publication of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group.
sun@cwf.ca
Sharon Zhengyang Sun
Trade Policy Economist, Canada West Foundation;
Distinguished Fellow, Asia Pacific Foundation
Sharon Zhengyang Sun is the Trade Policy Economist at the Canada West Foundation in Calgary, Alberta, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation. She specializes in research on international trade policy for China and the Asia Pacific. She has a long-standing research interest in China-Canada commercial relations and China’s free trade agreement (FTA) behaviours and effectiveness. Her broader interest focuses on the impact of Asia Pacific region’s FTAs on trade and trade infrastructure. Some of Ms. Sun’s work includes China’s industrial policy, Made-in-China 2025’s impacts on Canadian trade, Western Canadian provincial export opportunities with Japan under the CPTPP, and addressing Chinese non-tariff barriers on Canadian agricultural exports, among other trade agreement and trade related issues. Ms. Sun is a Ph.D. candidate at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University. Prior to joining Canada West Foundation, she was an associate researcher with the Centre for Trade Policy and Law and an instructor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University.
ROWarner@okanagan.bc.ca
Rosalind Warner
Co-Chair Canadian Defence and Security Network
Rosalind’s work includes graduate work in Political Science at York University’s Centre for International and Security Studies, a one-year travel-study tour around the world focused on issues of peace and conflict resolution, and almost 30 years of teaching subjects from International Development to Canadian government. Rosalind has researched and published on topics like ecological modernization, global environmental governance issues, protected areas governance in North America, environmental discourses, disaster risk reduction, global health, and environment and trade in Canadian foreign policy.
Rosalind is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, past editor of Unsettled Balance: Ethics, Security and Canada’s International Relations, and Ethics and Security in Canadian Foreign Policy, both with UBC Press.
Recent article: Governance for resilience: Canada and global disaster risk reduction, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 26:3, 330-344, DOI: 10.1080/11926422.2019.1699129. Rosalind is also Co-Director, along with Andy Knight, of the Canadian Defence and Security Network’s Global Health Security Theme. Additionally, Rosalind is a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project, Chair of the local Steering Committee of the Global Empowerment Coalition of the Central Okanagan (BCCIC Chapter), and Board Member of the Canadian Environmental Network.
Mark.Williams@viu.ca
Mark S. Williams, PhD
Department Chair and Teaching Professor of Political Studies,
Vancouver Island University
Mark is Chair and Teaching Professor of Political Studies and Teaching Professor of Global Studies at Vancouver Island University. He is the editor of The Politics of The Asia-Pacific: Triumphs, Challenges, and Threats (University of Toronto Press), and the author of Indonesia, Islam, and the International Political Economy: Clash or Cooperation? (Routledge). He has published chapters in scholarly books on Indonesian politics, as well as articles on global politics in The Journal of Political Science Education, International Journal, International Dialogue, The International Journal of Canadian Studies, Peace Magazine, and others.
Mark is a past-president of the Hamilton Branch of the Canadian International Council and an honorary member of the Victoria Branch.