Peter Harris

Peter Harris is Director of the recently-established Asian Studies Institute at Victoria Univeersity of Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to this, he was Founding Director of the Asia 2000 Foundation of New Zealand (1994-95), a national foundation set up by the New Zealand government to promote ties with Asia.

From 1990 until 1994, Harris was China Representative of The Ford Foundation, and in the 1980’s he was the head of research on Asia for Amnesty International, Editor and talks writer for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Oxfam Representative in East India and Cambodia. While with The Ford Foundation, Harris facilitated Ford support for the Yunnan programs of the Center for U.S.-China Arts Exchange of Columbia University in New York.