Steve A. Smith (GBR)

Professor Steve A. Smith is an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Essex. He specialises in Russian and Chinese history.

"I studied history at Oxford University before going on to Birmingham University to do an MSocSci and a PhD at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies. While working on my PhD, I spent a year at Moscow State University during the years of ‘stagnation’ under Brezhnev. Later, having developed a strong interest in modern China, I spent a year in Beijing taking a course in Chinese language. In 1986 I began to do research on the history of Chinese labour in the republican period (1911-1949), spending eight months at Fudan University in Shanghai. I have taught at Essex University since 1977."