About Dr. Bulelani Jili

Dr. Bulelani Jili is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he is part of the African Studies Program and an affiliate of the Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA) Program. His research interests include Africa-China relations, cybersecurity, ICT development, African political economy, internet policy, Chinese business law, law and development, and privacy law. 

He is also a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School. He is also a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School, a fellow at New America, an Advisory Board Member of the International Panel on Social Progress, a former committee member on the IEEE Standards Association's Global Initiative on AI Systems Ethics, a former Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a former Cybersecurity Fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, and a former Electronic Privacy Information Center Scholar-in-Residence. He also conducted research for the China, Law, and Development project at Oxford University. The European Research Council funds the 5-year interdisciplinary and multi-sited research project, which seeks to comprehend the underlying order of China’s new globalism. He has also advised leading think tanks, governments, firms, and watchdogs such as the American Bar Association, OpenAI, the French government, Freedom House, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the US State Department, the United Nations, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

His writing and work have appeared in leading think tanks and journals around the world, including African Affairs, Nature, Theory, Culture & Society, Mail & Guardian, Africa is a Country, Bloomberg, The Elephant, South China Morning Post, African Centre for Strategic Studies, Politico, Lawfare, Tech Policy Press, The Economist, Financial Times, and East Asia Forum. He is also a regular panelist and speaker at international conferences, including those in South Africa, the Netherlands, South Korea, U.K., India, Switzerland, and Australia. 

He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship, Berkman Klein Fellowship, Meta Research Ph.D. Fellowship, Google Public Policy Fellowship, International Strategy Forum award,Oppenheimer Graduate Fellowship Fund, and Orrick Fellowship.

Dr. Jili earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He also earned an M.Phil. from Cambridge University (UK), where he studied as a Standard Bank Africa Chairman’s Scholar. He received a Yenching Scholarship in 2016 to study at the Yenching Academy of Peking University (China), where he earned an M.A. in Economics. He took an A.B. with honors in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (College of Social Studies) from Wesleyan University (CT), where he was a Pfeiffer Scholar. 

He lives in Washington, DC.