Bryony Lau

Bio

Bryony currently works for the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization, at its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. As an assistant editor, she works closely with field-based staff as well as senior management to finalize reports analyzing conflict situations and proposing ways of preventing or resolving them. She focuses on Asia and francophone Africa.

Her previous experience includes working as a part-time researcher at Oxford Analytica in Oxford, UK, and as a political desk officer in the East Asia Division at Foreign Affairs Canada in Ottawa, Canada. She also enjoys grassroots work; she volunteered extensively on refugee issues while living in Toronto and taught in rural schools in Jamaica.

Originally from Calgary, Bryony obtained a BA in History and International Relations from the University of Toronto. She then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, obtaining an MPhil in International Relations with specializations in East Asia and normative theory. She has also spent time studying in Beijing and Tianjin, China. She speaks English and French and is learning Mandarin Chinese.

Issue of Investigation

As a 2009 recipient of the Gordon Global Fellowship, Bryony will investigate the strategies used by various UN agencies, governments, think tanks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to encourage China to honour its commitments under the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol. She will be conducting interviews in Europe, North America, Nepal and China.