Tim Winter, Professor in Critical Heritage Studies, University of Western Australia

Tim Winter is an Australian Research Council Professorial Future Fellow at the University of Western Australia. His work addresses how the past comes to be constructed and reconstructed for public audiences and for diplomatic, geopolitical, and nationalistic purposes. His most recent book is Geocultural Power: China's Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (2019).

"Tim Winter reexamines the idea of the 'Silk Road' and shows that it has had a range of meanings over time, with significance for groups as far apart as geopoliticians and travel writers. This is a stimulating read that illuminates many aspects of the Sino-Western relationship." - Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford

"This remarkable and ambitious book could not be more timely, given the necessity of understanding the 'Silk Road(s)' in this time of deepening global shifts and tensions. Winter combines extraordinary scholarly depth and breadth, as he draws apart the many elements, ideas, and associations ascribed to this compelling geocultural and geostrategic concept. By looking at the intersections of popular culture, political events, and expert commentary, he shows how 'the Silk Road' is used by different actors, in evolving ways, to make historical, cultural, and political claims around space, connectivity, and values. This book is an interdisciplinary masterpiece and deserves close attention from all analysts of the Silk Road." - Emma Mawdsley, Professor of Human Geography and Fellow of Newnham College, University of Cambridge