From PhD to Profession: Navigating the Next Career Step

What comes next after completing a PhD? How do early career researchers navigate the transition from doctoral study to their first professional role? The Manchester China Institute invites postgraduate research students in China- related studies to a career panel discussion featuring academics and researchers from diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds. Our speakers will share their personal journeys, reflections, and practical insights on securing suitable positions after graduation, both within and beyond academia.

This event offers an opportunity to gain first‑hand perspectives, ask questions, and reflect on your own career planning at a crucial stage of your research journey.

Speakers

Dr Wang Tao, Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Wang Tao is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Political Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research centres on public opinion, propaganda, and political representation, with a regional focus on East Asia. His current work examines authoritarian public opinion and foreign affairs, including a project on the sources of popular support in China for Russia’s war in Ukraine. He is also developing a book manuscript on Taiwan’s constituency service, exploring the ramifications of social norms such as guanxi.

Dr Sha Zhou, Research Associate, University of Manchester

Dr Sha Zhou works is a Research Associate at the Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester, researching how Chinese activists responded to the publication of the 1985 report The Chinese in Britain by the Home Affairs Committee on Race Relations. Prior to this, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Jinan University, China(2022-2024) and holds a PhD in Contemporary British History with a thesis on the migration of Chinese women to post-war Britain.

Dr James Jackson, Hallsworth Reseatrch Fellow, University of Manchester

Dr James Jackson is a Hallsworth Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences (SOSS) and the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). He is a political economist with a focus on the intersection of fiscal, monetary and climate policy. He is a member of the Politics Department's Environmental Political Group and the Manchester China Institute (MCI). Outside of Manchester, James is a co-convenor of the Political Studies Association (PSA) Environmental Politics Specialist Group.

James joined the institute after completing his PhD at the University of Sheffield and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) where his thesis analysed the politics of the electric vehicle transition in Germany and the UK. He has held visiting positions at the University of Bergen (2022), the University of Toronto (2023), the University of Melbourne (2024), the University of Ottawa (2025) and Peking University (2025).

His work has been published in various leading journals, including New Political Economy, Global Environmental Politics, Environmental Politics, Energy Research & Social Science, Competition and Change and Journal of Cleaner Production, amongst others.

Dr Tian Liu, Lecturer, University of Manchester

Dr Tian Liu is a Lecturer in Global Political Economy at the University of Manchester. My areas of specialization include political economy of development, institutional change, food politics, and historical capitalism. He received my PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. My publications can be found in Journal of Peasant Studies, Development and Change, Socio-Economic Review, among others. He is working on my book manuscript: Quest for Common Prosperity: Politics of Agrarian Development and Spatial Inequality in China.

The MCI is a listed building and therefore does not have any lifts. Please note that you must use the stairs in order to access the venue and the toilets.

The organisers will be taking photos during this event. If you prefer not to be included in any photos, kindly inform the organisers before the event starts.

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Host or Publisher The Manchester China Institute