Centre of Central and East Asian Studies

Dr. Nora Yitong Qiu

Lecturer/Assistant professor in Modern East Asian History, Department of History, UCL

I am a historian of modern East Asia, specializing in the period from 1600 to 2000. I examine the social interactions among diverse communities in the Qing Empire, the Republic of China, and the People’s Republic of China, with particular attention to the ways power and identity shaped social and economic development. I also engages with broader questions on the roots of inequality and the processes of modernization, and conduct research across nine languages. I hold a BA in History and Economics from Mount Holyoke College, and an MSc (Research) and PhD in Economic History from the London School of Economics 2022.

Before joining UCL as a member of the permanent research and teaching faculty in 2024, I taught at both the LSE and the University of Oxford.

Dr. Jennifer Bond

Lecturer/Assistant professor, IOE, Education, Practice & Society, UCL

I am a historian of modern China focusing on gender, Christianity, education and diplomacy in the early twentieth century. My interest in Modern China was sparked in 2006 when spent six months teaching English in Hainan Province. Following my BA and MA degrees in History at Warwick, I undertook an M.Phil. in Modern Chinese Studies at Oxford University, including intensive language study at Peking University. I completed my PhD at SOAS, University of London in 2018. 

Prior to joining IOE in 2022, I taught Chinese and East Asian History at SOAS, Durham, and University College Dublin.

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Prof. Georgina Brewis

Professor of Social History, IOE, Education, Practice & Society, UCL

I am Professor of Social History at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society. I am a social historian of higher education, voluntary action and humanitarianism in Britain and the wider world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My current research and teaching interests centre on the history of student life and student culture with a new co-authored book out in 2026 called Student London: A New History of Higher Education in the Capital. I am Director of Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London, a research and engagement project in the run up to UCL's bicentenary in 2026 that builds on my earlier revision of UCL's official history, The World of UCL (UCL Press, 2018). With my colleague Jennifer Bond I have researched the associational cultures of Chinese students in the UK before 1945 and supervise doctoral work on this topic. I teach history modules on the Education, Society and Culture BA and Public History MA.

Dr. Lars Peter Laamann

Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in History of China, SOAS, University of London

Lars Peter Laamann (Chinese name 勞曼) is Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS University of London), and associated to the Manchu Studies Centre of Jilin Normal University 吉林師範大學滿學院, as well as the Qing History College of Heilongjiang University黑龍江大學清史學院. His research interests include popular religions (incl. Christianity) during the Qing period and in Republican China, the history of medicine and drugs in modern China and the culture and socio-political roles of the Manchus in Qing China. Dr Laamann is the editor of the Central Asiatic Journal (ISSN 0008–9192).

Dr. Melanie Meng Xue

Assistant Professor in Economic History, LSE

My research interests include political economy, gender, culture and narrative, and early modern and modern China. My work examines the rise of women, the self-perpetuation of authoritarian regimes, and the long-term effects of affirmative action policies. By tracing the impact of historical events over time and in various institutional settings, my work centers on the role of values, beliefs, and norms in shaping economic and political disparities. 

In my research on historical narratives, I have found that folklore is a crucial source of cultural values. In a more recent project, I explore cultural change following the Industrial Revolution through the study of proverbs. Another ongoing line of inquiry concerns cultural values in China across space and time, within and between ethnic groups. A book project expanding this line of research is currently in progress.​

I am currently on sabbatical for the 2025–26 academic year and spending the fall semester at Yale.

Prof. Kent Deng

Professor in Economic History, LSE

Professor Deng research interests and writing includes the rise of the literati in the economic life of pre-modern China; the maritime economic history of pre-modern China; the economic role of the Chinese peasantry.

Other key topics in his work are the developmental deadlock of the Chinese premodern economy; long-term demography of premodern China; early modern railway development in China; Chinese fiscal state and its impact on the economy