Reza Hasmath (Ph.D., Cambridge) is a Professor in Political Science at the University of Alberta. He has previously held faculty positions in management, sociology and political science at the Universities of Toronto, Melbourne and Oxford, and has worked for think-tanks, consultancies, development agencies, and NGOs in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and China. He was formally trained in philosophy, public policy, international studies and diplomacy, and social and political sciences, as well as in various East Asian and Western European languages.

His award-winning research is supported by various multi-year grant schemes, notably from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and can be summarized in fourfold: (1) examining the education and labour market experiences of ethnic minorities in the North American, Australian and Chinese contexts; (2) analyzing state-society relationships in China, with an emphasis on non-governmental organization activities; (3) investigating how the behaviour of emerging state and non-state actors potentially affect salient theories, practices and assumptions in international development and international affairs; and, (4) assessing the evolving behaviour of policy actors and the citizenry, and their subsequent impact, in advanced authoritarian institutional environments.