Arianna Ioki U

Researcher specializing in media and politics within authoritarian settings, with a focus on Southern Africa, particularly Mozambique.

Arianna Ioki U is guest researcher from Macau. She is currently a PhD candidate in international relations at Tsinghua University. Her research interests are at the intersection of media, politics and authoritarianism in southern Africa. Specifically, her doctoral research aims to investigate the elusive media-politics nexus and power structures in contemporary Mozambique. She has completed her four-month fieldwork in different regions of Mozambique in 2024, and has served UNESCO Maputo Office for one year in 2017. 

Previously, Arianna has conducted various research and fieldwork regarding Africa's development and Africa-China relations, spanning education, agriculture, trade and media freedom. She was also a visiting researcher at University of Oxford, Sciences Po Bordeaux-LAM, and Universidade Pedagogica de Maputo. She speaks Chinese, English and Portuguese.

Arianna was awarded "Excellent teaching assistant" by Schwarzman College for her support on delivering two graduate courses: China's foreign relations and China's International Development Cooperation. Prior to undertaking her PhD, she gained her master's degree from KU Leuven in Belgium, and worked as a policy researcher/research consultant for different development-related organisations. She also co-founded and managed a non-profit organisation Genervision House, a UN SDSN-Youth and YOUNGO member organisation aims to localise the Sustainable Development Goals in Macau.