Illinois State University Visiting Presidential Professor Yan Bennett will give the annual Hibbert R. Roberts Lecture.
Bennett is the assistant director for the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China. She most recently worked at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (now Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program) at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs where she served as the assistant director from 2009-2015.
The lecture is free, open to the public, and sponsored by the Department of Politics and Government. It will take place at 6 p.m. March 7, 2023, in the Old Main Room at the Bone Student Center.
Before coming to Princeton, Bennett was a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State and served overseas in China and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In China, she served as vice consul and had the opportunity to report on U.S. corporate labor practices, intellectual property issues, and the results of a municipal election in Guangdong Province. In Bosnia, Bennett served as special assistant to the ambassador and supported senior staff in achieving foreign policy and national security objectives. She has received awards for superior performance from the State Department, including a personal commendation from Secretary of State Colin Powell.
She received her B.A. in political science from Furman University and an M.A. in international affairs from the Elliott School at George Washington University. Bennett also has a JD from Syracuse University College of Law.
Bennett teaches diplomacy and international affairs as a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. For 2022-23, she is Visiting Presidential Professor at Illinois State University, where she teaches the practice and history of American diplomacy.
The annual Hibbert R. Roberts Lecture is organized by the Department of Politics and Government in memory of Roberts, who was a faculty member in the department from 1969 to 1992. The lecture brings a leading academic or an activist to speak about their work on public policy related issues.
