John Fitzgerald is Emeritus Professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne where he headed the Asia-Pacific philanthropy studies program from 2013 to 2017. 

Before that he served five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing and before that again as Director of the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.  From 2015 to 2017 he was the elected President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His research focuses on the history of nationalism, public administration, and philanthropy in China, and on the histories of the Chinese diaspora, and his public commentaries focus on China-Australia relations. His books include Cadre Country:  How China became the Chinese Communist Party (2022), Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia (2007), awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association, and  Awakening China (1997) awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize of the U.S. Association for Asian Studies.  He has a Ph.D. from ANU and held a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney.