12 March AGM / Plenary session – ‘Faith & China: A Year in Review’

You are invited to our AGM and Plenary on Tuesday 12 March at Augustine United Church in Edinburgh. The AGM is in the morning at 10.30am (teas & coffees from 10am). A buffet lunch is at 1pm.

The Plenary afternoon session at 2pm is a special Q+A with Dr Mark McLeister, Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The title for the session is ‘Faith and China: A Year in Review’ and Mark will be in conversation with Rev Alan Miller, Convener of the Scottish Churches China Group.

Our AGM and Plenary sessions are open to anyone who is interested in our work or would like to learn more about China.

Address: Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EL

Further information about our speaker:

Dr Mark McLeister was appointed as Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 2015. He has a PhD in Chinese Studies and an MSc in Chinese Business & International Relations, both from the University of Sheffield.

Mark trained in Social Anthropology (MA Hons) at the University of St. Andrews (1996-2000) before taking up a position for a Chinese NGO where his work involved teacher-training and education programme development. He then took up a faculty position at a Chinese university, teaching English language, English for Academic Purposes and cross-cultural communication. He completed his PhD in Chinese Studies at the University of Sheffield in 2013. His PhD research was an ethnographic account of church-state interactions in contemporary urban China.

Mark has lectured and tutored on aspects of contemporary Chinese society, Chinese politics, conducting business in a Chinese context and Chinese language. Mark’s teaching at the University of Edinburgh focuses on the ethnography of Chinese society, religion in China, and ethnographic methods.

Mark researches and publishes on local-level church-state interactions and religious policy in China, popular Chinese Christianity and disability and religious identity. He has recently embarked on a new project exploring the practices and meanings of Protestant Christian names in the Peoples’ Republic of China.