Dr Miriam Driessen

Miriam Driessen is a Departmental Lecturer in Global and Area Studies. Before joining GAS in 2026, she taught at the university's School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Between 2016 and 2019, she was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at OSGA and contributed to the Contemporary Chinese Studies programme.

Grounded in long-term ethnographic field research in China and Ethiopia, Miriam's work considers the local manifestations of global transformations occasioned by China's growing international presence. She has explored Chinese involvement in Ethiopia through various lenses, including migration, labour, language, and law.

Miriam is the author of Tales of Hope, Tastes of Bitterness: Chinese Road Builders in Ethiopia (2019) and Immunity on Trial: Ethiopian Courts, Chinese Corporations, and Contestations over Sovereignty (2026).