For nearly two decades, economist Mary Lovely has focused on China’s sustainable development and its emergence into the global market. Her expertise has drawn much interest from media outlets, from Bloomberg and CBS News to the New York Times and Reuters. 

So, it’s an apt choice that Lovely has been tapped to serve as Library of Congress Chair in U.S.-China Relations at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. The nine-month appointment begins on Jan. 3, 2022, and includes full access to the Library’s collections, which are the largest in the world, and an office in the Library of Congress overlooking the Supreme Court Building.

“It’s very exciting,” says Lovely of her appointment. She plans to focus her research on the role of multinationals and how their interests were represented during the period when the U.S. was negotiating China's entry into the World Trade Organization. 

“They will certainly have documents and hearing testimony related to that,” says Lovely, who served as editor of the China Economic Review from 2011 to 2015 and is also a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States—and extensive materials from around the world—both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.

Lovely is also tasked with convening events for Congressional staffers related to U.S.-China relations. “I’m hoping to do three events—create a panel that I moderate and write an overview brief for Congressional staff with suggested readings,” she says. Possible topics include trade policy, the future of the U.S. dollar and China’s digital currency, and Chinese industrial subsidies. 

That intellectual exchange is really the goal of the program. The Kluge Center was established in 2000 by a $60 million endowment from philanthropist John Kluge to bring top scholars from around the world to residence at the Library of Congress to make their expertise accessible to Congress and contribute to conversations about challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.

“Something I’ve tried to do when talking to reporters is to elevate the conversation, but often they pull a sound bite that's the pluckiest,” says Lovely. “So, I'm really looking forward to facilitating these conversations for policymakers. It’s normally very hard to get access to Capitol Hill.” 

Lovely will teach at Maxwell’s Washington, D.C., facility housed at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in fall 2022 and return to the main campus in Syracuse in spring 2023.

By Renée Gearhart Levy