Dr. Carla Freeman

Biography

Carla Freeman is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She has extensive experience, previously serving as a Senior Expert at the China United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and holding faculty positions at JHU SAIS for over a decade. Freeman has also been a Kluge Chair at the Library of Congress and has worked as a political risk analyst in various academic and non-profit capacities. Her key experiences include working as a Junior Science Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which inspired her career in international relations and China policy. She earned her B.A. in Southeast Asian History from Yale University, along with a certificate in Chinese language studies from Beijing Language & Culture University and a certificate in political science from Sciences Po Paris. She received both her M.A. and Ph.D. from SAIS, focusing her dissertation on the political economy of reform in China and the challenges posed by its heavily industrialized Northeast region. Her current projects include a book tentatively titled China Strategic New Frontiers, and she teaches courses that explore China’s role in great power competition, emphasizing various planetary frontiers and their implications for global leadership and security.

Research Interests