2026-27 Fellow
Dr Annie Drahos
Dr Annie Drahos is an early career researcher, NAATI Chinese–English Translator, and adjunct research fellow at Adelaide University. With expertise in Chinese political discourse and governance, her current research focuses on the state of Australia’s China knowledge and the political and institutional dynamics shaping Australia-China research collaboration. She holds a PhD in Chinese politics and linguistics from the University of Adelaide, spent three years living and working in China, and has over a decade of teaching and translation experience across China and Australia.
Dr Drahos’s Fellowship project, ‘Geopolitics and green steel: research collaboration and securitisation in the Australia–China iron ore relationship’, will investigate how Chinese researchers, industry figures and policymakers view the risks and opportunities of collaboration between Australia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on green iron, and what they identify as the key factors limiting that collaboration.
2026-27 Junior Fellow
Leo Barry
Leo Barry is a Master’s degree student at the Yenching Academy of Peking University in the Politics and International Relations track and an emerging researcher of contemporary Chinese and Indonesian politics. Leo completed an Arts degree with honours majoring in Chinese Studies and Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney, during which he completed exchanges in Taiwan and Indonesia. His honours thesis examined the relationship between Java’s ethnic Chinese press and the Indonesian nationalist movement during the Indonesian National Revolution and was nominated for the School of Languages and Cultures Honours Showcase. He is currently studying in Beijing where he plans to write a Master’s thesis on Sino-Indonesian relations during the Cold War.
His Fellowship project, ‘Illuminating the China-Indonesia relationship’, will examine how the PRC approaches and articulates its Indonesia strategy, with a view to the implications for Australia's regional foreign policy.
Inaugural Fellow
Dr Edward Chan
Dr Edward Chan is a Postdoctoral Fellow from the Australian Centre on China in the World, the Australian National University (ANU). With expertise in international relations, Indo-Pacific security, China’s foreign policy, and maritime security, his current research focuses on China’s evolving influence in oceans governance. He is the author of China’s Maritime Security Strategy: The Evolution of a Growing Sea Power (Routledge, 2021). He is also the Associate Editor of The China Journal.
Dr Chan’s Fellowship project is titled, 'Australia-China relations and maritime security in the South Pacific'. It aims to strengthen understanding of how Australia can effectively navigate its various maritime interests in the context of China’s rising presence in the South Pacific region, while seeking opportunities for engagement between the two countries in non-conventional security issues.
