Congratulations to Patricia Thornton, who has received the title of full professor in the University's Recognition of Distinction exercise 2025.
Professor Thornton is the author of Disciplining the State: Virtue, Violence, and State-making in Modern China (Harvard University, 2007), as well as co-author of multiple titles, including The Chinese Communist Party: a 100-Year Trajectory (ANU, 2024), Identity Matters: Ethnic and Sectarian Conflict (Berghahn, 2007), Red Shadows: Memories and Legacies of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, 2017) and To Govern China: Evolving Practices of Power (Cambridge 2018). She has published articles in leading international journals including China Leadership Monitor, The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, The China Quarterly (for which she has been Acting Chief Editor) and The China Journal.
At Oxford, Professor Thornton has served as Chair of the Sub-Faculty of Politics and International Relations and Chair of the PPE Committee and was Director of the Contemporary Chinese Studies Programme at OSGA throughout 2024.
