William C. Kirby (Chinese: 柯伟林; pinyin: Kē Wěilín; born 1950) is an American historian and sinologist currently serving as T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University.
[4] He serves on the Board of Directors of Cabot Corporation; The China Fund, Inc.; The Taiwan Fund, Inc.; the American Council of Learned Societies; and Harvard University Press.
He chairs the Academic Advisory Council for Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University and serves as Senior Advisor on China to Duke University.
[5] In 2013 and 2014, Kirby created and presented the HarvardX online course ChinaX along with his colleague Peter Kees Bol.
He has written on China's relations with Europe; the history of modern Chinese capitalism; the history of freedom in China; the international socialist economy of the 1950s; and Cross-Strait relations.