Marxism in Britain and China

This research group focuses primarily on understanding the collaborative analysis of the work of Marx and subsequent Marxists in the context of British and Chinese society.

It seeks to bring together British and Chinese students and scholars for intellectual discussion and debate. The project is led by Dr David Bates at Canterbury Christ Church University, working with two world respected political philosophers and scholars of Marx and Marxism.

About our members

Professor David Bates

Dr Bates is Principal Lecturer and Director of Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University. His research interests are focused primarily in the area of contemporary radical political thought, including the constitution of modes of political subjectivity, the link between modes of labour, and the theoretical understanding of social movements. He has written widely on Marx and Marxism. His work includes:

• Marxism, Intellectuals and Politics (ed), 2007.
• Marxism, Religion and Ideology: Themes from David McLellan (edited with Ian MacKenzie and Sean Sayers) 2015. 

Professor David McLellan

Professor McLellan is Professor Emeritus at The University of Kent, and CCCU Associate Professor in Political Theory. He has been Visiting Professor at the State University of New York, Guest Fellow in Politics at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, and has lectured widely in North America, Europe and Asia. His publications are world renown, and include:

• The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx, 1969.
• Karl Marx: His Life and Thought, 1973 (also published under the title Karl Marx: A Biography).
• Marx, Fontana Modern Masters, 1975.
• Karl Marx: Selected Writings, 1977.
• Engels, Fontana Modern Masters, 1977.
• Marx before Marxism, 1980.
• Karl Marx: The Legacy, 1983.
• Marx - the first hundred years, 1983.
• Marxism and Religion, 1987.
• Marxism, 1988.
• Simone Weil, 1989.
• Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil, 1990.
• Unto Caesar, 1993.
• Marxism after Marx, 1980.

Professor Sean Sayers

Professor Sayers is Professor Emeritus at the University of Kent, and CCCU Associate Professor in Political Theory. Professor Sayers has written extensively on Hegelian and Marxist philosophy from a Hegelian‑Marxist perspective. He has worked in the areas of social philosophy, ethics, theory of knowledge and metaphysics, as well as on Freud and psychoanalysis. He studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and holds a PhD from the University of Kent. His work has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. He has held visiting appointments in Colorado, Massachusetts, Sydney, Istanbul, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Beijing. He is currently Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Peking University. His publications include:

• Marx and Alienation: Essays on Hegelian Themes, 2011.
• Plato's Republic: An Introduction, 1999.
• Marxism and Human Nature, 1998, paperback 2007.
• Reality and Reason: Dialectic and the Theory of Knowledge, 1985.
• Hegel, Marx and Dialectic: A Debate, 1980.

Professor Sayers was one of the founders of the journal Radical Philosophy (1972), and of the Marx and Philosophy Society (2003). He is founder and editor-in-chief of Marx and Philosophy Review of Books (2010).

For further information please email david.bates@canterbury.ac.uk . 

Dr Yang Liu

Dr Yang Liu is Associate Lecturer in Politics and International Relations. She has a BSc. in International Trade and Economics from XiAn University of Finance and Economics in China. She also has an MSc degree in Finance and Investment Management and a PhD degree in Politics and International Relations, both of which were awarded by the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her research interests include the economic and political issues of China, China’s foreign policy, and China’s relationships with the EU and the States.  

Dr Liu’s other experience includes being an Education UK Project Delivery Manager in the British Council in Scotland, a research observer in the Europe and China Strategic Dialogue in Brussels and Strasbourg, the Inter-Parliamentary Meeting observer in the 25th European Parliament and Chinese National People’s Congress, the assistant and interpreter for the First in Command Secretary of the USA Embassy Beijing at the 5th Asia-Pacific Regional Business Forum, the interpreter for the WTO-China Accession Delegation from Japan to Xi’an China, and the UKTI business delegation to Iraq, Jordon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

Currently, Dr Liu is involved in the strategic development of building international partnerships for academics and students between CCCU and overseas institutions in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe. 

Dr Liu’s publications include:

• (With Y.H Chen and L. Quan) ‘An empirical investigation on the temporal properties of China’s GDP’. China Economic Review , 27, 2013: pp. 69-81
• (With Y.H Chen and L. Quan) ‘A structural VAR analysis on the linkages of China’s stock market with global financial markets’. (Working Paper)