Dr Christina Maags

School of East Asian Studies

Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies

A profile picture of Christina Maags
Profile picture of A profile picture of Christina Maags
c.maags@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Christina Maags
School of East Asian Studies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
Profile

Dr Maags joined SEAS in 2020 after working as Lecturer in Chinese Politics at SOAS (2017-2020).

She completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Frankfurt, Germany (2017) and studied in Oxford, Frankfurt and Bonn. In addition, she has been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University (2016).

Qualifications

BA Asian Studies (Bonn); MA East Asian Studies (Frankfurt); Msc Comparative Social Policy (Oxford); PhD Political Science (Frankfurt)

Research interests

Christina's research interests include political economy, multi-level governance and local policy implementation in the People’s Republic of China. Using these analytical frameworks as a lens, she has particularly conducted research on cultural heritage politics and the politics of demographic ageing in contemporary China.

Publications

Books

  • Maags C & Zhu Y (2020) Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C & Svensson M (2018) Chinese Cultural Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations and Contestations. Amsterdam University Press. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Maags C (2021) Cultural heritage politics in China In Shei C (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Studies (pp. 177-177). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C (2018) Cultural Contestation in China: Ethnicity, Identity and the State In Rodenberg J & Wagenaar P (Ed.), Cultural Contestation: Heritage, Ethnicity and the Role of Government RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C (2018) Creating a Race to the Top, Chinese Heritage in the Making (pp. 121-144). Amsterdam University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C & Svensson M (2018) Mapping the Chinese Heritage Regime: Ruptures, Governmentality, and Agency In Maags C & Svensson M (Ed.), Chinese Heritage in the Making Experiences, Negotiations and Contestations RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C & Trifu I (2018) Protecting the Weak? Tracing UNESCO’s Influence on Intangible Cultural Heritage Regimes in Japan and China In Amelung I, Baelz M, Holbig H, Matthias S & Storz C (Ed.), Protecting the Weak in East Asia. Framing, Mobilisation, Institutionalisation RIS download Bibtex download
  • Maags C (2018) Creating a Race to the Top Hierarchies and Competition within the Chinese ICH Transmitters System, CHINESE HERITAGE IN THE MAKING: EXPERIENCES, NEGOTIATIONS AND CONTESTATIONS (pp. 121-144). RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

Research group

Dr Maags is currently working on two major research projects:

Political Economy of Elder Care in China

This project examines the development of elder care services across China. It compares how differences in multi-level governance across space result in diverging approaches to elder care service development in urban and rural areas and by extension diversity in local elder care service industries.

Intangible Heritage, the Market & the Stat

This project examines the political economy underlying the marketization of intangible cultural heritage in the tourism and creative industries in China, particularly focusing on how these affect cultural practitioners.

In her research, Dr Maags pays particular attention to interactions and interdependencies across global, national and local scales.

Teaching interests

Dr Maags believes that teaching courses means to take students on a “journey”. Throughout the course students are familiarised with different issues and perspectives which need to be critically engaged and discussed.

Her teaching therefore focuses on letting students interact with the course topic in various ways so as to get different experiences in relation to the topic of the course.

 To do so, Dr Maags includes a variety of sources (reading materials, films/documentaries, online talks, policies and laws) and types of exercises in her teaching so as to keep students interested and engaged throughout the journey.

Teaching activities

For academic year 2021/22 I am teaching the following modules:

  • EAS1000 Exploring East Asia
  • EAS6143 Political Economy of China
  • EAS680 State and Economy in Contemporary China