John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney. He is renowned globally for his creative thinking about politics, history, media, democracy, and is the author of many distinguished books including the bestselling Tom Paine: A Political Life (1995) and The Shortest History of Democracy (2022), which has so far been published in 15 languages. He has contributed to The New York Times, Al Jazeera, the Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, The Guardian, Die Zeit, Hindustan Times, and the South China Morning Post. He was nominated for the 2021 Balzan Prize (Italy) and the Holberg Prize (Norway) for outstanding global contributions to the human sciences.
Baogang He is Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Professor He is widely known for his work on Chinese politics, in particular deliberative politics in China, and regionalism, international relations, federalism, and multiculturalism in Asia. His publications include essays in Science, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Peace Research, Political Theory, Political Studies, and Perspectives on Politics. His published books include Rural Democracy in China (2007), Governing Taiwan and Tibet (2015), and the co-edited China and North Korea's Human Rights (2021).