Visiting Fellow
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
Contact info
valeria.lauria@eui.eu
Valeria Lauria is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Chinese Political Economy at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. She was previously a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the European University Institute and a Boya Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Peking University. During her doctorate, she held visiting positions at Tsinghua University and Yale University’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.She holds a joint PhD from the International Institute of Social Studies and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA in International Relations from Roma Tre University.Her research sits at the intersection of international political economy and development studies, with a focus on China’s role in Africa’s infrastructure and digital transitions. Her work examines how Chinese finance and firms interact with other global actors, how competing approaches to infrastructure and digital development are negotiated, and how these dynamics translate into project design and delivery, paying particular attention to the distribution of benefits, risks, and opportunities at the local level.She co-leads two research projects: GRID-Africa, supported by the EUI Widening Europe Programme, and DigiAfrica, a CIVICA Research Hub initiative.
Ongoing
Completed