Kevin Carrico is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies in Monash University's School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics.

Kevin is a sociocultural anthropologist who researches nationalisms and ethnic relations in China, Tibet, and Hong Kong. Fusing ethnographic insights with literary and social theory, Kevin studies the many nationalisms that have emerged in this region in the century since the fall of the Qing Empire. His work aims to contribute not only to our understanding of identity in the Sinophone world, but also to the theorization of nationalism.

His first book, The Great Han: Race, Nationalism, and Tradition in China Today (University of California Press, 2017), studies a grassroots nationalist movement that promotes a vision of China for Han only, drawing upon fieldwork with enthusiasts across China.

His second book, Two Systems, Two Countries: A Nationalist Guide to Hong Kong (University of California Press, 2022) is the first book-length English-language study of Hong Kong's independence movement, which envisions a Hong Kong nation distinct from China, drawing upon fieldwork in Hong Kong. Two Systems, Two Countries was also translated and re-published in Taiwan in 2023 as 異國兩制: 從香港民族主義到香港獨立.

Kevin is currently developing an ethnographic project studying pro-China activists in Taiwan, who propose the integration of Taiwan into China. He is also interested in the political and personal implications of anti-Japanese sentiment in today's China.  

His research has been funded by the United States' Department of Education, the Australian Research Council, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. His research has been published in the China Journal, Hong Kong Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Critical Inquiry, and Asian Cinema. 

Beyond academic work, Kevin has two decades of translation experience. He is the translator of Tsering Woeser's Tibet on Fire: Self-Immolations against Chinese Rule (Verso Press, 2016) as well as Guan Jun's Silencing Chinese Media: The Southern Weekly Protests and the Fate of Civil Society in China (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

Kevin was a columnist for Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, which was closed under political pressure in June 2021. Kevin's writings have been featured in Foreign Policy, the Age, Hong Kong Free Press, Taipei Times, Voice of Tibet, China Brief, and Anthropology News.

Kevin is accepting PhD students with compatible research interests.

-ethnic relations and tensions in China

-politics and political culture in the Sinophone world

-nationalism theory

-social systems theory and deconstruction

-existentialism and society