Dr Matthew Hurst
Teaching Fellow in the International Relations of Contemporary China
I am the Teaching Fellow in the International Relations of Contemporary China based at the University of Oxford China Centre.
In my research, I examine the place of Hong Kong in UK-China international relations. My PhD (University of York) explored how Hong Kong people sought to shape the negotiations between British and Chinese officials that led to the colony being handed over in 1997.
Prior to my PhD, I took the MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford and before this I had a career working with China.
I am also currently a Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (2026/7) and combine history with political science in my research.
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Articles:
- 2026. ‘Hong Kong Colonial Government Migrated Archives at Hanslope Park’, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, DOI: 10.1080/03086534.2025.2561196
Winner of the British Association for Chinese Studies 2025 Early Career Researcher Prize
Shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society Early Career Article Prize 2026.
- 2024. ‘Negotiating with the Past: China’s Tactical Use of History, Emotion and Identity’, East Asia, DOI: 10.1007/s12140-023-09422-8
- 2024. ‘Rethinking Transnational Activism through Regional Perspectives’, co-authored with Thomas Davies, Daniel Laqua, Maria Framke, Anne-Isabelle Richard, Patricia Oliart, Kate Skinner, Pilar Requejo de Lamo, Robert Kramm and Charlotte Alston, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, DOI: 10.1017/S0080440123000294
- 2022. ‘Britain’s Approach to the Negotiations over the Future of Hong Kong’, The International History Review, DOI: 10.1080/07075332.2021.2024588
Winner of the Political Studies Association Conservatism Studies Group 2022 Research Prize
Book Chapters:
- 2025. ‘Constitutional Change’ in Florence Mok and Charles Fung (eds.) A New Documentary History of Hong Kong, 1945-1997, DOI: 10.2307/jj.28210040.10
Working papers/blogs:
- ‘Restricted Records: How Hong Kong communities lose out when archives stay closed’, Active History
- ‘Memory exiled’, History Workshop
- ‘Destroying and doctoring the Empire’s past’, Imperial & Global Forum, University of Exeter
- ‘Abandon rationality or abandon Trump?’, co-authored with Thomas Moore, SPERI University of Sheffield
- ‘Paper Trails of Hong Kong’s Post-War Colonial History’, co-authored with Charles Fung and Florence Mok, SOAS China Institute
- ‘Less than a decade to decide what to do about Hong Kong’, Royal Society for Asian Affairs