Speakers

• 
  Sari Hanafi

  Website

  Sari Hanafi is a professor of sociology, director of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies and chair of the Islamic studies program at the American University of Beirut. He is the president of the International Sociological Association. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on politics of scientific research; the sociology of religion; connection of moral philosophy to social sciences; the sociology of (forced) migration applied to Palestinian refugees.

  His most recent books include: Knowledge Production in the Arab World: The Impossible Promise (with R. Arvanitis); The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East (co-edited with A. Salvatore and K. Obuse). In 2022 he became a lifetime corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

• 
  Daniel Murphy

  Dan Murphy is executive director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG) at the Harvard Kennedy School where he works in support of the Center’s mission to advance the state of knowledge and policy analysis concerning some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of the public and private sectors.

  Before joining M-RCBG, Dan served for nearly five years as executive director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Harvard China Fund, which together are among the world’s leading research centers for the study of China. During his tenure Dan broadened awareness of the Fairbank Center and China Fund both within Harvard and beyond; reinvigorated programming and engagement with stakeholders; and played a key role in fundraising efforts which left both units in solid financial standing. In 2019, he was a key member of the team that traveled with Larry Bacow to Greater China for meetings with academic partners and government officials.

  Before coming to Harvard Dan served as the inaugural program director for Yale Center Beijing. In that role, he worked in partnership with deans, faculty, and contacts in China to produce programming at Yale’s facility in Beijing. From 2008-14 Dan was at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, finishing as director of special initiatives. At the National Committee, he grew the Public Intellectuals Program, which connects America’s next generation of leading scholars with policymakers and the media. He also led delegations of senior American Congressional staff on study visits to China, directed a range of other programming, and led successful grant initiatives that were funded by the State Department and private foundations.

  Dan received a full scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, where he studied politics. He also holds an M.A. in Chinese Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a B.A. in English and Chinese Language and Literature from Connecticut College. In 2001, Dan was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow.

  His recent writing and speaking have focused on China, higher education, and global science.

  Dan is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and serves on the advisory board of The China Project. He speaks fluent Mandarin.

• 
  Anastas Vangeli

  Dr. Anastas Vangeli is an assistant professor at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has published on Global China, its domestic transformations and its ideational impact abroad, the Belt and Road Initiative, and Europe-China relations. His current research interests include global (dis)connectivity, economic nationalism, and non-market strategies. Dr. Vangeli is also a non-resident fellow at the EU-Asia Institute at the ESSCA School of Management, Angers, and a senior non-resident fellow at the ChinaMed Project, Turin World Affairs Institute.

• Maria Elena Rodriguez