Girum ABEBE
Research Associate (non-resident)

Girum Abebe is a Senior Economist at the World Bank’s African Gender Innovation Lab (AFRGIL). Girum holds a PhD in Development Economics from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining AFRGIL, he worked at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, the premier public research think-tank in Ethiopia, for more than a decade producing several policy papers and journal articles. He is currently engaged in the design and evaluation of interventions that connect young job seekers to productive employment as well as in the study of mechanisms that can be leveraged to narrow the gender gap in wage employment and entrepreneurship.

Lina BENABDALLAH
Research Associate (non-resident)

Lina Benabdallah is an assistant professor of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. She is the author of Shaping the Future of Power: Knowledge Production and Network-Building in China-Africa Relations (University of Michigan Press, 2020). Her research has appeared in the Journal of International Relations and Development, Third World Quarterly, African Studies Quarterly, and Project on Middle East Political Science, as well as in public facing outlets such as The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage and Foreign Policy. Dr. Benabdallah is also a contributing editor for Africa Is a Country. She earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida in 2017 and has conducted fieldwork in Beijing, Jinhua, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Bamako.

Sérgio CHICHAVA
Research Associate (non-resident)

Sérgio Chichava is a senior researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies (IESE) in Mozambique, where he works on Rising powers and development; State, Conflict and Development. He is also a Lecturer in Political Sociology and Political Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM). He obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux, France, specialising in African Politics and Development. His recent work focuses on the role of China and Brazil in Mozambique and Religious extremism and Violence. Dr. Chichava has also written policy briefs for CARI and the Future Agriculture Consortium.

David G. LANDRY
Research Associate (non-resident)

David G. Landry is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a Partner at Occam Strategies and a Consultant at the World Bank. His current work explores the determinants and impacts of China's economic engagement in Africa. He also researches the impacts of good governance and institutional development for development finance, foreign investment, and trade among developing countries. In addition to the World Bank, he has consulted for the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, and Transparency International. He has conducted research in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and South Africa and has worked in Bangladesh, Ecuador, FYR Macedonia, Kenya, and Tajikistan. He holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins SAIS, an MSc from the University of Oxford (St Antony’s College) and a BA from McGill University.

Josh MAIYO
Research Associate (non-resident)

Josh Maiyo is adjunct lecturer in International Political Economy at Webster University, Leiden campus in the Netherlands and a Ph.D. Fellow at the VU University Amsterdam where he is a recipient of the Netherlands Scientific Council science for development (NWO-WOTRO) scholarship. His research examines transnational dimensions and local dynamics of large-scale land deals, agrarian change and rural development in central Uganda with case studies of Chinese, Indian and Norwegian owned farms. He has also carried out investigations of Chinese government and private engagement in Uganda’s agriculture sector. He holds an MSc degree in Political Science (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam and an MPhil in African Studies from the African Studies Centre, Leiden University. Previously, Josh was a lecturer of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam where he taught politics of development and worked as a journalist in Kenya and the Netherlands.

Margaret MCMILLAN
Research Associate (non-resident)

Margaret McMillan is a professor of economics at Tufts University and a Research Associate in the NBER’s program on International Trade and Investment. In 2009, she was appointed the Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. McMillan holds a Ph.D. in economics (with distinction) from Columbia University, an MPA from Princeton University, and B.A. in mathematics and economics (summa cum laude) from Boston University. Her research covers international trade, investment, and development. In 2005, she was named the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is the principalinvestigator on a multi-million dollar project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the U.K. designed to enhance the understanding of economic growth and structural change in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Yoon Jung PARK
Research Associate (non-resident)

Yoon Jung Park is a co-founder and Executive Director of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network and an adjunct professor in the African Studies Program at Georgetown University. She has taught at Rhodes University, the University of Johannesburg, the University of the Witwatersrand, Howard University, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, and American University and is former Associate Director of the China-Africa Research Initiative at SAIS. Park is the author of A Matter of Honour: Being Chinese in South Africa (Jacana/Lexington Books) and dozens of articles and book chapters in scholarly publications and editor/co-editor of several special China-Africa issues of respected journals. Park's work sits at the intersections of migration studies, Africa and China studies, work on the Global South, and identity studies; her research focuses on ethnic Chinese in southern Africa and perceptions of Chinese people by local communities. Born in Seoul, Park grew up in Los Angeles, and lived in Africa (Johannesburg & Nairobi) from 1995-2010. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of the Witswatersrand. In addition to English, she speaks fluent Spanish, kitchen Korean, and smatterings of KiSwahili and IsiZulu.

Henry TUGENDHAT
Research Associate (non-resident)

Henry Tugendhat is a senior policy analyst with the China team at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He focuses on issues related to China's impact on conflict dynamics in Africa and Latin America. Tugendhat has worked on these issues for a decade through previous employment at the Institute of Development Studies in the U.K., the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and the World Bank Group’s macroeconomics, trade and investment team. His core areas of interest include conflict, economics, telecommunications, and cybersecurity in the context of China-Africa and China-Latin America relations. Tugendhat lived and worked in China for three years and holds a master’s from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a bachelor’s from the University of Leeds. He is currently finishing his PhD at Johns Hopkins University SAIS.

Ying XIA
Research Associate (non-resident)

Ying Xia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law at the University of Hong Kong. She received her S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. Her doctoral thesis examines the socio-legal implications of Chinese investment in African countries. During her study at Harvard, Ying was also awarded the Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize for her work on the connections between China’s environmental campaign and the international trade in waste. She also received an LL.M. in international law and an LL.B. from Peking University. Ying’s research interest includes environmental law, international law, and law and public policy, with a focus on experience from developing countries.

TANG Xiaoyang
Research Associate (non-resident)

Tang Xiaoyang is an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a resident scholar and the deputy director of the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. He is the author of China-Africa Economic Diplomacy (2014) and has published extensively on Asia-Africa relations. His research focuses on the impact of Chinese engagement on Africa's modernization and on the construction of global value chains. Previously, Dr. Tang has worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, DC and as a consultant for the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and various research institutes and consulting companies. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research in New York.