As part of the University of Virginia's "Assessment of China's Belt and Road Initiative" project, the East Asia Center will be hosting Maria Repnikova. Dr. Repnikova is an Associate Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University. She received her doctorate (DPhil) in Politics at the University of Oxford where she was a Rhodes Scholar. 

Her talk with us, "Chinese Soft Power in Africa: Production of Ambivalent Solidarities," will explore the workings of Chinese soft power initiatives in Africa through the empirical lens of China-Ethiopia encounters. Specifically, the analysis will focus on how Chinese soft power is envisioned, deployed, and received, including the varied and contested affinities that Chinese initiatives produce on the ground. The talk draws on 10 months of fieldwork in Ethiopia and China, including the study of China-led elite trainings, Confucius Institutes, and state media operations in Africa. The analysis will introduce both the distinctive facets of Chinese soft power outreach in Africa, namely its pragmatic orientation, as well as the ambivalent reception towards it, including opportunistic engagement, along with alienation and cynicism vis-à-vis China.

Join us Friday, April 7, from 3:15 - 5:00 p.m. in New Cabell Hall 309 for the event. To attend via concurrent livestream, please register here.