ESA (Vic) 2014 Professional Development Seminar #7 John Fitzgerald "Reflections of five years running an NGO in China"

The topic

In 1979 the Ford Foundation was invited to support the development of the social sciences in China. Eight years on it opened an office in Beijing. Since that time it has provided funding support at a level matching that of AusAID.

As a private foundation the Ford Foundation has not enjoyed the standing of a government agency and yet it has made a significant contribution to China’s economic and social development. John Fitzgerald, the Foundation’s China Representative from 2008-2013, introduces the work of the Foundation and reviews its challenges and achievements in China over the pasts thirty five years.

The speaker

John Fitzgerald joined Swinburne University in 2013 as Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy after serving for five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing. Before that he was Head of the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University and, before that again, Director of the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University. In Canberra he served for as Chair of the Education Committee of the Australia-China Council of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as chair of the Committee for National and International Cooperation of the Australian Research Council, and as International Secretary of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His book, Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia (UNSW 2007) was a finalist in the Prime Minister’s History Prize in 2008 and awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association for the most distinguished book on Australian History published that year. His publications have also won international recognition, including the China history prize of the American Association for Asian Studies, the Joseph Levenson Prize. John has a Ph.D. from ANU and held a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate of Sydney University.