Professor James Leibold is a leading authority on the politics of ethnicity, race, and national identity in modern Chinese history and society. His research critically examines the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to forge a unitary nation-state through governance, securitisation, and cultural assimilation, particularly in regions such as Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. He has twice been named Australia's leading researcher in Asian studies and history by the The Australian newspaper (2019, 2026).
He has authored or co-edited four books and published over a hundred articles, book chapters, and essays. His expertise is frequently sought by international media, with insights featured in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, ABC Four Corners, and China Leadership Monitor.
From 2018 to 2022, Professor Leibold served as Lead Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Project, "Urbanising Western China: Nation-building and Social Mobilisation on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier." He also directed the Xinjiang Data Project at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute between 2020 and 2023. That project produced an interactive map of the Chinese government's re-education camps, detailed governance chart, and eight research reports documenting human rights abuses in Xinjiang, work that attracted international attention, resulted in new legislation, and served as "a textbook example of the sophisticated use of open sources to shed light on an otherwise opague issue," according to the Varghese Report into strategic policy work.
In addition to his research, Professor Leibold has contributed to policy discussions through submissions to parliamentary inquiries, consultancies, and work as a legal expert witness. He has also engaged in public scholarship, sharing his knowledge through various media platforms, podcasts, and academic forums. Professor Leibold is committed to mentoring colleagues and has conducted workshops aimed at enhancing research communication skills, reflecting his dedication to bridging academic research and public discourse.
2026- Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Centre for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar University
2026- Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University
2020-26 Professor, Department of Politics, Media & Philosophy, La Trobe University, Australia
2020-22 Senior Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Australia
2019-22 Head of Department, Politics, Media & Philosophy, La Trobe University, Australia
2016-20 Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University, Australia
2015-17 Convener, Politics Program, La Trobe University, Australia
2012-15 Visiting Professor, Beijing Foreign Studies University, PRC
2009-16 Senior Lecturer in Politics and Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Australia
2006-09 Lecturer in Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Australia
2002-06 Director of Public Programming, Asialink, Australia
1998-03 Boren Fellow, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, US Department of Defense
1995-98 Program Associate, Asia Society Hong Kong Centre
Leibold, J. and Julie Yu-wen Chen (2024). “Han-centrism and Multiethnic National-Building in China and Taiwan: A Comparative Study since 1911,” Nationalities Papers (1.30 impact factor.)
Leibold, J. and Tenzin Dorjee. (2023). “Learning to be Chinese: colonial-style boarding schools on the Tibetan plateau,” Comparative Education, 29 August. (3.30 impact factor).
Roche, Gerald and Leibold, J. (2022). “State racism and surveillance in Xinjiang (People’s Republic of China),” The Political Quarterly, 93.3: 442-450. (2.02 impact factor).
Roche, Gerald, Leibold, J. and Hillman, B. (2020). “Urbanising Tibet: differential inclusion and colonial governance in the People’s Republic of China,” Territory, Politics, Governance, 11.2: 394-414 (3.02 impact factor).
Yang Miaoyan and Leibold, J. (2020). “Building a ‘double first-class university’ on China’s Qing-zang Plateau: opportunities, strategies and challenges,” The China Quarterly, 244: 1140-1159. (2.23 impact factor).
Zhao Taotao and Leibold, J. (2019). “Ethnic governance under Xi Jinping: The rise of the United Front Work Department & its Implications,” The Journal of Contemporary China, 124:487-501 (1.87 impact factor).
Leibold, J. (2019). “Surveillance in China’s Xinjiang Region: Ethnic sorting, coercion, and inducement,” Journal of Contemporary China, 121: 46-60 (1.87 impact factor).
Zenz, A and Leibold, J. (2019). “Securitizing Xinjiang: Police Recruitment, Informal Policing and Ethnic Minority Co-optation,” The China Quarterly, 242: 324-348 (2.28 impact factor).
Leibold, James and Timothy A. Grose (2019). “Cultural and Political Disciplining inside China’s Dislocated Minority Schooling System,” Asian Studies Review, 43.1: 16-35 (1.20 impact factor).
Leibold, James (2018). “Inland Ethnic Minority Boarding Schools: China’s Bold and Unpredictable Educational Experiment,” Asian Studies Review, 43.1: 3-15 (1.20 impact factor).
Leibold, J. and Timothy Grose (2016). "Veiling in Xinjiang: The Struggle to Define Uyghur Female Adornment," The China Journal 76: 1-25 (impact factor 2.65).
Leibold, J. (2016) "Han cybernationalism and state territorialization in the PRC," China Information 30.1: 3-28. (impact factor 1.48) Winner of the Eduard B. Vermeer Prize for Best article in 2016
Leibold, J. (2011) “Blogging Alone: China, the Internet, and the Democratic Illusion? The Journal of Asian Studies 70.4: 1023-1041 (1.24 impact factor).
Leibold, J. (2010) “More than a Category: Han Racial Nationalism on the Chinese Internet,” The China Quarterly 203: 539-559 (2.28 impact factor).
Leibold, J. (2010) “The Beijing Olympics and China’s Conflicted National Form,” The China Journal 63: 1-24 (impact factor 2.65).
SELECT ESSAYS
Leibold, J. (2024). “The Tibet-Aid Project and Settler Colonialism in China’s Borderlands,” Made in China, 12 November.
Leibold, J. (2024). “New Textbook Reveals Xi Jinping’s Doctrine of Han-centric Nation-Building,” China Brief, 24.11.
Leibold, J. (2021). “The Not-so Model Minority: Xi Jinping’s Mongolian Crackdown,” China Leadership Monitor, 70 (Winter).
Leibold, J. (2021). “Beyond Xinjiang: Xi Jinping’s ethnic crackdown,” The Diplomat, 1 May.
Dirks, Emile and Leibold, J. (2020). “China is harvesting the DNA of its people. Is this the future of policing? The New York Times, 24 July.
Xu, Vicky Xiuzhong and Leibold, J. (2020). “Your favorite Nikes might be made from forced labor. Here’s why.” The Washington Post, 17 March.
Leibold, J. (2019). “Planting the seed: Ethnic policy in Xi Jinping’s new ear of cultural nationalism,” China Brief, 19.22 (31 December).
Leibold, J. (2019). “The Spectre of Insecurity: The CCP’s Mass Internment Strategy in Xinjiang,” China Leadership Monitor, 59 (Spring).
Leibold, J. (2018). “Mind Control in China has a very long history,” The New York Times, 28 November.
Leibold, J. (2017). “The Australia-China Relations Institute doesn’t belong at UTS,” The Conversation, 6 June.
SELECT POLICY REPORTS
Lin Li and James Leibold (2022). Cultivating Friendly Forces: The Chinese Communist Party’s influence operation in the Xinjiang diaspora, Australia Strategic Policy Institute.
Ruser, Nathan and James Leibold (2021). Family De-planning: The coercive campaign to drive down birth-rates in Xinjiang, Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Xu, Vickey, James Leibold and Daria Impiombato (2021). Architecture of Repression: Unpacking Xinjiang’s governance, Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Xu, Vicky, Danielle Cave, James Leibold, Kelsey Munro and Nathan Ruser (2020). Uyghurs for Sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Ruser, Nathan, James Leibold, and Kelsey Munro and Tilla Hoja (2020). Cultural Erasure: Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang, Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Grose, Timothy and Leibold J. (2022). “Pathology, inducement and mass incarcerations of Xinjiang's 'targeted population',” in The Xinjiang emergency: Exploring the causes and consequences of China’s mass detention of Uyghurs, ed. Michael Clarke, pp. 127-153 (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Leibold, J. (2022). “China’s re-education camps in Xinjiang: Curing the disease or killing the patient?”, in Detention Camps in Asia, eds. Robert Cribb, Christina Twomey, and Sandra Wilson, pp. 175-195 (Leiden: Brill).
Leibold, J. (2016) "Interethnic conflict in the PRC: Xinjiang and Tibet as Exceptions?" in Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang: Unrest in China's West, eds. Ben Hillman and Gray Tuttle, pp. 223-250 (New York: Columbia University Press).
Leibold, J. and Danielle Xiaodan Deng (2016) "Segregated Diversity: Uyghur Residential Patterns in Xinjiang, China," in Inside Xinjiang: Space, Place and Power in China's Muslim Far Northwest, eds Anna Hayes and Michael Clarke, pp 122-48 (London: Routledge).
Leibold, J. and Chen Yangbin (2014) "Introduction: Minority Education in China: Balancing Unity and Diversity in an Era of Critical Pluralism," in Minority Education in China: Balancing Unity and Diversity in an Era of Critical Pluralism, eds. James Leibold and Chen Yangbin, pp. 1-24 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press).
MAJOR GRANTS:
- Research Grant, Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, 2023-2025, $1,000,000 Indian Rupee
- Project Grant, Global Engagement Centre, US State Department, 2020-2022, US$1,054,505 (ASPI)
- China Network’s International Programme Grant, British Embassy Beijing, 2021, £10,000 (ASPI)
- ARC Discovery Project Grant, 2018-2022, A$393,953 (Lead CI with Ben Hillman & Gerald Roche)
- Transforming Human Societies RFA Grant, 2016, A$22,000 (w/ Chen Yangbin)
- ARC Linkage Grant, 2010-2013, A$240,000 (joint CI with Judith Brett)
- Endeavour Collaborative Grants, Australian Academy of Humanities, 2010-11, A$30,000 (w/ Chen Yangbin)
- Ford Foundation China, Workshop grant, 2011, US$15,000 (w/ Gerard Postiglione and Chen Yangbin)
- American Council of Learned Societies and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, 2007, US$30,000 (w/ Thomas Mullaney)
CITATION METRICS:
- Google Scholar: 3446 citations; 1812 since 2021 with h-index of 29
- Web of Science: 734 citations for 36 total publications with h-index of 15