William Hurst

Professor William Hurst

BA MA PhD

  • Position Governing Body Fellow
  • School Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Department POLIS, Centre for Development Studies
  • X Profile @wjhurst
  • Department link POLIS

Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

William Hurst

William Hurst works on labor politics, contentious politics, political economy, and the politics of law and legal institutions, principally in China and Indonesia. He is currently completing a book manuscript on the comparative politics of law and legal institutions in China and Indonesia since 1949. For this work, he has completed more than one year of fieldwork in each country since 2006. He has been at Northwestern University since 2013 before he was a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford and an assistant professor at the Universities of Texas and Toronto.

Quick links

Centre for Development Studies
Centre for Geopolitics

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A triptych of abstract images: a smooth round stone nestled in a curved rock, distorted eyeglass frames scattered on a white background, and a high-contrast black and white microscopic image resembling organic or cellular structures.

Art Exhibition: Wolfson at 60

19/07/2025 at 10.00

Celebrating Wolfson’s 60th anniversary year, this exhibition highlights the range of artistic disciplines and styles that have made up our exhibitions over the years.

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Graduation Ceremony

26/07/2025 at 09.00

Graduation ceremonies are the culmination of students’ hard work and commitment, and a moment to celebrate the completion of their Cambridge degree.

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Research Appetisers

05/08/2025 at 18.00

Come and hear our part-time students talk about their research at this informal evening of short presentations and friendly discussion.

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Wolfson College main drive in Autumn

Open Cambridge - Tree Trail

06/09/2025 at 10.00

A self-guided Tree Trail around the beautiful and varied garden 'rooms' of the grounds at Wolfson College.

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A handwritten poem on a black sign is mounted to a tree trunk, inviting readers to embrace the mysterious calm of evening dew.

Open Cambridge - Poetry Trail

12/09/2025 at 10.00

Follow our self-guided trail through the College gardens which feature extracts of poetry written by Wolfson members from our latest WolfWords poetry anthology, press play. 

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