Malaika Robinson

Key information

Qualifications
BA (Spelman), MA (Columbia)
Thesis title
Slogans and Strategies: Discursive Power Politics and the US-China Trade War

Biography

Malaika I. Robinson is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. 

Her research focuses on U.S.-China trade relations and includes international security, China’s foreign relations, and discursive power. Ms. Robinson is the graduate teaching assistant for the International Relations of East Asia module taught by Dr. Yuka Kobayashi. She also organised the politics department’s 2021 M.Phil. conference, “Global Perceptions of Power in the 21st Century.” 

Previously, Ms. Robinson was the deputy director of speechwriting for Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She also worked as deputy press secretary and speechwriter for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio during his leadership of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. At the Asia Society Policy Institute, she assisted with research for the Weaponizing the Belt and Road Initiative report. 

Ms. Robinson has lectured at the Beijing American Center, volunteered at the Beijing LGBT Center, and studied Mandarin Chinese at both Middlebury College and Beijing University. She holds an M.A. in Global Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in English from Spelman College. 

Research interests

  • US-China relations
  • International security
  • China's foreign relations
  • Political rhetoric and discourse

Contact Malaika