The specialist magazine China.Table ranks Professor Doris Fischer and Professor Björn Alpermann from the University of Würzburg among the ten leading minds in China studies in Germany.
Doris Fischer and Björn Alpermann research and teach at the Sinology Institute of the University of Würzburg. (Image: Daniel Peter / Florian Thünken)The editorial team of the Berlin-based journal China.Table has selected the 100 most influential people on the German-speaking China scene - ten persons in ten categories. The categories include politics, administration, business, and academia. In the category of academia, the editorial team counts two researchers from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg among the ten leading personalities: Professor Doris Fischer and Professor Björn Alpermann.
Doris Fischer's numerous research projects on competition, regulation and industrial policy focus on China's economic policy and the associated incentive structures for economic actors. The professor has been Chair of China Business and Economics at JMU since 2012; she is also JMU's Vice President for Internationalisation and Alumni since 2021. She studied business administration and sinology in Hamburg and Wuhan and holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Giessen.
Björn Alpermann is one of the leading Xinjiang researchers in Germany. The professor has held the Chair of Contemporary Chinese Studies at JMU since 2013. In addition to his work on the situation of the Uyghurs, he currently heads the joint project "Worldmaking: A Dialogue with China" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and conducts research on China's cities as spaces of worldmaking. Björn Alpermann studied modern China studies, political science and economics in Cologne and Tianjin. He obtained his doctorate in modern China studies in Cologne in 2006. After a stay at the University of California in Berkeley, he came to Würzburg in 2008 as Assistant Professor of Contemporary Chinese Studies.
Recognition for the Entire Sinology Team
The other eight top German Chinese scholars are based in Duisburg-Essen, Friedrichshafen, Heidelberg, Kiel, Trier, Tübingen and Washington.
"We are delighted that Würzburg Sinology is represented twice in this selection. It is a nice recognition of our individual research achievements and public relations work. But above all, I see it as recognition for the entire team, who make a lot of things possible for us in the first place," says Doris Fischer.
Björn Alpermann adds: "With its combination of economic and social science research on China and the internationalisation of its degree programmes, Würzburg Sinology has some unique selling points. This choice shows that we are also very committed and successful in communicating science and imparting expertise on China. This is an incentive for us to continue in this vein."
The Sinology team not only imparts China expertise to students: The China Competence Centre of the University of Würzburg (CCCUW), founded in 2022, offers a platform for interdisciplinary exchange on issues relating to cooperation with China. It makes the JMU's expertise in China visible both internally and externally.
China.Table and its Parent Company
Table.Media claims to be the largest start-up for quality journalism in Germany. In the editorial offices of the Berlin-based media and news company, which was founded in 2019, large teams of experienced journalists deal with clearly defined subject areas.
The editorial team at China.Table, for example, consists of twelve people. In contrast, the best German newspapers only employ "one or at most two China correspondents, most of them none at all", the company writes on its website.
