Global China Summer School 2025: China in Circuits of Global Extractivism
16-19 June, 2025
Chinese globalisation both past and present has been deeply entangled in processes of global extractivism that have underpinned industrialisation and capitalist development around the world. From the 19th century gold rushes in settler colonial contexts to the contemporary global scramble for lithium, Chinese labour and capital have been key to the making of our contemporary global capitalist system.
The 2025 edition of the Global China Summer School—hosted by the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University—seeks to explore the enduring historical legacies and contemporary implications of Chinese entanglements in processes and patterns of global extractivism. The Summer School will bring together leading scholars on the study of Global China along with graduate students conducting research on Chinese globalisation. It will provide a space to take stock of the state of the field of Global China Studies and jointly identify productive avenues for future research.
Organised by the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden and the Global China Lab
Call for Applications
The Global China Summer School has 20 spots available for graduate students working on issues related to Chinese globalisation. Attendance is free and accepted students will have five nights of accommodation covered in Lund. The Summer School will also include lunches and coffee breaks. Travelling costs will not be covered.
Applicants should submit a CV (three pages maximum) along with a motivation letter (300–500 words) providing a brief explanation of how their research interests align with the focus and overall goals of the Summer School. Accepted students will be expected to submit some written work—either a work in progress or a more finalised piece—that will form the basis for peer review discussion during the Summer School.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) will be hosting a workshop on Global China and Just Transitions in Stockholm from 11–13 June, the week before the Summer School, and will provide scholarships for two students from the Global South to travel to both the Workshop and the Summer School. The scholarships will cover the costs of flight tickets (in economy class) to and from Sweden, hotel in Stockholm for the period of the workshop, travel between Stockholm and Lund, and visa fee. Students who wish to be considered for the scholarships must indicate this in their application.
All applications for the scholarships will be evaluated by a selection committee comprised of staff from RWI and from the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. The following factors will be taken into consideration when evaluating applications: 1) eligibility, and 2) quality of the curriculum vitae and letter of motivation.
Application email: GlobalChinaSummerSchool [at] gmail [dot] com (GlobalChinaSummerSchool[at]gmail[dot]com)
Application deadline: 14th March 2025.
Keynotes
Ching Kwan Lee – University of California, Los Angeles
Victor Seow – Harvard University
Speakers
Máximo Badaró – Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Argentina
Christian Sorace – University of Cambridge
Malin Oud – Raoul Wallenberg Institute
Robert Kibugi – University of Nairobi
Mingwei Huang – Dartmouth
Heidi Østbø Haugen – University of Oslo
Gabriel Botchwey – University of Education, Winneba
Hans Steinmüller – London School of Economics and Political Science
Hasan Karrar – Lahore University of Management Sciences
Jesper Willaing Zeuthen – Aalborg University
Mikkel Bunkenborg – University of Copenhagen
Tabita Rosendal – Lund University
Stefan Brehm – Lund University
Ivan Franceschini – University of Melbourne
Nicholas Loubere – Lund University
Sponsors
The Global China Summer School is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and supported by the British Academy’s Global Convening Programme and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
