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Faculty

The East Asian studies faculty of Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC, and North Carolina State University, NCSU, collaborate in the Triangle East Asia Consortium. TEAC boasts a team of dozens of full-time, tenure-track faculty who focus on East Asia as well as more than a dozen language-teaching faculty, and a number of other faculty members with research interests in East Asia.

East Asian studies faculty from each university have enjoyed close relations for many years. Duke and UNC, in particular, have established university-wide relationships that facilitate exchange at both the student and faculty level. In 2008-9, faculty members from each campus developed the Triangle Japan Forum, a monthly seminar uniting scholars and students and featuring presentations of work in progress, celebrations of finished work and lectures by invited scholars. More recently, the Triangle China Forum and the Triangle Korea Forum have also been active.

At UNC and Duke, East Asian studies faculty work with Ph.D. students in Anthropology, Art History, History and Comparative Literature. NCSU offers an M.A. in History that attracts East Asia specialists; Duke’s Asia / Pacific Studies Institute offers an M.A. in East Asian Studies, and UNC’s Asian Studies Department is currently developing a graduate program. NCSU and UNC faculty also mentor graduate students and sit on Ph.D. committees at Duke.

Through enhanced collaboration efforts, our collective faculty plays an important role in supporting and promoting East Asian studies throughout the Southeast, while raising its collective profile and attracting top-notch graduate students.

Anthropology

Anne Allison
Robert O. Keohane Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Research Interests: Contemporary and urban Japan, mass and children’s culture, sexuality, globalization, capitalism. Affiliated with Women’s Studies.

Ralph Litzinger
Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Research interests: Cultural politics of ethnicity in the People’s Republic of China, social and political theory, conservation politics, development, environmentalism.

Chris Nelson
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: History and memory, everyday life, ethnography, critical theory, storytelling, ritual, performance, Japan, Okinawa.

Donald M. Nonini
Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Urban and political anthropology, cultural politics, global systems, transnationalism, critical theories of power, race relations in the south & southeast U.S. and East Asia, Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia.

Ara Wilson
Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Research interests: Thailand, urban southeast asia, capitalist modernity, sexuality, gender, globalizing Asia

Art & Art History

Stanley Abe
Associate Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University
Research interests:  Chinese Buddhist art and architecture, visual theory, colonial knowledge formation

Gennifer Weisenfeld
Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese art history, the impact of Japan’s modern sociopolitical transformations on artistic production and practice, Japanese modernism and commercial design.

Yun-Dong Nam
Professor of Studio Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Emotion and energy in ceramic sculpture.

Asian Studies

Jan Bardsley
Professor of Japanese Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese feminism, Japanese women’s magazines and popular culture, encounters between women in the U.S. and Japan, icons of the feminine (including royal women, geisha, and pageant winners).

Uffe Bergeton
Assistant Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Pre-Qin (i.e. pre-221 BCE) society and thought, linguistic theories and methodologies, early Chinese theories of epistemology and reclusion, comparisons between pre-Qin China and ancient Greece.

Eileen Chow
Visiting Associate Professor of Chinese and Japanese Cultural Studies, Duke University
Research interests: Chinese literature, film and visual studies, popular culture (anime/manga, fandoms, media technologies), diaspora theory/history, global Chinatowns.

Leo Ching
Professor of Japanese Literature, Duke University
Research Interests: Modern Japanese literature, theories of imperialism, colonial/postcolonial theories, globalization and cultural formation, popular culture, transnationalism in Asia/America.

Mark Driscoll
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese media and cultural studies, colonialism and postcolonialism in East Asia.

Guo-Juin Hong
Associate Professor, Chinese Language and Literature, Duke University
Research interests: Film historiography, film theory, postcolonial theory, theories of culture and globalization, film and other media of Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

Li-ling Hsiao
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ji-Yeon O. Jo
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Korean diaspora, ethnic return migration, Asian-American Studies.

I. Jonathan Kief
Assistant Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: History of Chinese painting, the history of Chinese print culture, the history of Chinese drama, and the history of Chinese kung-fu novels.

Nayoung Aimee Kwon
Mellon Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Korean and Japanese literature, history, and film; theories of empire and nation; translation studies; colonial/postcolonial discourses; Asian-Pacific trans-cultural movements; nexus of Asian and Asian-American studies; global visual cultures.

Kang Liu
Professor, Chinese Language and Literature, Duke University
Research interests: Aesthetics, literary theory, cultural studies, Marxism, popular culture, Chinese studies

Carlos Rojas
Associate Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies, and Arts of the Moving Image, Duke University
Research interests: Visual culture, gender studies, popular culture, theories of corporeality, diaspora studies

Robin Visser
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Modern Chinese literatures, visual culture, urban studies, environmental studies, relational ontologies within Sinophone eco-literature.

Gang Yue
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Modern Tibet, the rise of China.

Chinese Language

Luoyi Cai
Lecturer in Chinese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lini Ge
Lecturer in Chinese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Vocabulary teaching and learning strategies, assessment of listening and reading competence, application of technology in language classrooms.

Chi-Ju Hsieh
Instructor of Chinese, Duke University
Research interests: Second language acquisition and methodology of language teaching

Tianshu He
Lecturer and Coordinator for First Year Chinese, Duke University
Research interests: Second language acquisition theories and methodologies, teaching with multimedia technology, Chinese classical language and literature

Kun Shan (Carolyn) Lee
Professor of the Practice and Director of Chinese Language Program, Duke University
Research interests: Chinese language pedagogy, Chinese film studies, language acquisition

Wendan Li
Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Chinese linguistics (discourse analysis), Chinese language pedagogy.

Jia Lin
Lecturer in Chinese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Strategies-based reading instruction among L2 Chinese readers, CSL (Chinese as a second language) reading and writing, second language learning strategies

Yan Liu
Lecturer of Chinese language, Duke University
Research interests: Second Language Acquisition and Reading, biliteracy development and teaching/learning Chinese as a second language/a foreign language/a heritage language

Yi Zhou
Lecturer in Chinese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Teaching Chinese for business purposes, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), language assessment

City & Regional Planning

Yan Song
Professor of City & Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Low carbon and green cities, land use planning and scenarios, plan evaluation, land use regulations, spatial analysis of urban spatial structure and urban form, land use and transportation integration, planning support systems.

Economics

Yi (Daniel) Xu
Assistant Professor of Economics, Duke University
Research interests: Innovation, Productivity, Exporting and Industry Dynamics, with a special focus on East Asian emerging economies such as China, Taiwan, and Korea

Geography

Xiaodong Chen
Assistant Professor of Geography, University of North Carolina
Research interests: Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS)

Elizabeth Havice
Assistant Professor of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Political economy and ecology, international development, commodity studies, agrarian studies environmental politics, natural resources.

Geological Sciences

Jonathan Lees
Professor of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Seismology and volconology, Japan.

Global Public Health/School of Medicine

Kate Muessig
Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: The spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among at-risk populations in the U.S. and China.

Myron Cohen
Yeargan-Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Biology and epidemiology of transmission of STD pathogens, including HIV

Gail Henderson
Professor of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Global health inequality, research ethics, medical sociology, public health

Jongbae Jay Park
Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Asian medicine, complementary therapies, integrative medicine, acupuncture, technology development in rehabilitation

Barry Popkin
W. R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Program and policy research to arrest and prevent excessive energy imbalance and diabetes

Sean Sylvia
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: innovate approaches to improve delivery of health services in developing countries

Amanda Thompson
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Biomedical anthropology, nutrition, human biology, early life determinants of body composition and obesity, infant and child feeding

Joseph Tucker
Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Syphilis and HIV in China and the implementation of routine integrated syphilis/HIV testing, particularly as they relate to Chinese social structures

History

David Ambaras
Associate Professor of History, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Social problems and urban social history in imperial Japan.

Cemil Aydin
Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Modern Middle Eastern History and Modern Asian history, with an emphasis on the international and intellectual histories of the Ottoman and Japanese Empires.

Nicole Barnes
Assistant Professor of History, Duke University
Research interests: Twentieth-century China, history of medicine in China, social history of war, women’s and gender histories.

Prasenjit Duara
Oscar L. Tang Family Professor of East Asian Studies, Duke University
Research interests: Chinese history, Asian history, global history.

W. Miles Fletcher
Emeritus Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Modern Japanese history, 1868 to the present; the dynamics of Japan’s industrialization; the relationship between the state and the private sector.

Michelle King
Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Gender, the body, imperialism/colonialism, cultural translation, cultural history of nineteenth and twentieth-century China, Chinese diasporas.

Sucheta Mazumdar
Associate Professor of History, Duke University
Research interests: Chinese history, comparative Asian history, Asian-American history, rural economic development, migration, theories of race and ethnicity

Research Interests: Twentieth-century Japanese history, focusing on the growth of consumer markets, technology and social change, and Japanese rural society.

Morgan Pitelka
Professor of Asian Studies, Director of the Carolina Asia Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: History of medieval and early modern Japan, material culture studies. Affiliated with History

Kristina Troost
Head of International Area Studies, Librarian for Japan, Duke University
Research Interests: Language pedagogy, second language acquisition, Japanese linguistics, oral proficiency testing.

Michael Tsin
Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Social processes of identity formation through the prism of late 19th- and 20th-century China.

Japanese Language

Yuki Aratake
Senior Lecturer in Japanese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Innovative pedagogy in Japanese and immersive classroom experiences.

Hitomi Endo
Associate Professor of the Practice of Japanese, Duke University
Research Interests: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese art history, the impact of Japan’s modern sociopolitical transformations on artistic production and practice, Japanese modernism and commercial design.

Fumi Iwashita
Lecturer in Japanese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Proficiency-based and task-based language teaching, Focus on Form (FonF), multimedia resources for Japanese language

Yuko Kato
Senior Lecturer in Japanese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Pragmatics, changing social values vs. traditions, roles of music in society, teaching culture through film and TV drama

Naoko Kurokawa
Lecturer of Japanese Language, Duke University
Research interests: Japanese linguistics and sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, foreign language pedagogy

John Mertz
Associate Professor of Japanese, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: Modern Japanese literature.

Azusa Saito
Instructor of Japanese language, Duke University
Research interests: Language Pedagogy, curriculum development

Katsu Sawamura
Lecturer in Japanese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese language pedagogy, educational psychology, sports in Japanese culture

Eika Tai
Professor of Japanese, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: National identity, multiculturalism, human rights, colonial education.

Korean Language

Dongsoo Bang
Lecturer in Korean, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Eunyoung Kim
Instructor of Korean Language, Duke University
Research interests: Second language acquisition (pragmatic development of Korean learners), Korean for academic purposes, Korean teacher training program development

Hae-Young Kim
Professor of the Practice of Korean Language and Chair, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research interests: Second language acquisition, interface between morpho-syntax and discourse semantics, bilingualism, heritage language teaching, language pedagogy, Korean curricular development

Law

Taisu Zhang
Associate Professor of Law, Duke University
Research interests: Comparative legal and economic history of early modern societies (primarily China and England), property theory, law and development, contemporary Chinese law, society, and politics

Linguistics

Gareth Price
Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Duke University
Research interests: Language policy; sociolinguistics; multilingualism; discourse analysis; political sociology; migration; nationalism; globalization

Jennifer Smith
Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese linguistics, phonological theory, structure and intonation in the Fukuoka dialect.

Literature

Inger Brodey
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: The history of the novel in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe and Meiji Japan. Affiliated with Asian Studies.

Rey Chow
Professor of Literature, Duke University
Research interests: Modern fiction, film, visual culture, cultural theory.

Meredith Fosque
Senior Lecturer, North Carolina State University
Research interests:
Linguistics and China Studies.

Jennifer Ho
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Asian American, Multiethnic American and Contemporary American literature.

Nathaniel Isaacson
Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
Research interests:
Late Qing through contemporary Chinese literature and cultural studies, especially science fiction and cinema.

Heidi Kim
Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, Asian-American studies.

Music

Jonathan Kramer
Teaching Professor of Music and Arts Studies, Music Department, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Asian music, global music and aesthetics, ethnomusicology

Hsiao-mei Ku
Associate Professor of the Practice in Music Department, and a member of the Ciompi Quartet in Residence of Duke University
Research interests: Classical and Contemporary of Chinese Music in solo, chamber and orchestral formats. Mutual influence of East and West Culture and heritage

Political Science

Xi Chen
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Social movements, democratization, state-society relations in the context of authoritarianism.

Edmund Malesky
Associate Professor of Political Science, Duke University
Research interests: Specialist in Southeast Asia, political development of China and Vietnam, political economy of development, comparative political economy in Southeast Asia, as well as economic transitions in developing economies, foreign direct investment, causes and effects of authoritarian institutions and governance reform

Emerson Niou
Professor of Political Science, Duke University
Research interests: International relations, political economy, and East Asian politics; Chinese local elections and the formation of alliances in anarchic international systems

Psychology

Reiko Mazuka
Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
Research Interests: Increasing understanding of human brain development through investigation of language acquisition, specifically in relation to the phonological development of Japanese.

Religion/Religious Studies

Barbara Ambros
Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: East Asian Buddhism; Shinto; gender, pilgrimage, and sacred space in Japan; ethnicity and religion in Asian diaspora communities in Japan; human-animal relationships; East Asian religions and the environment.

Richard Jaffe
Creed C. Black Associate Professor of Religion, Buddhist Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese Buddhism during the early modern and modern periods, Asian Buddhist modernism, pan-Asianism, nationalism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Hwansoo Kim
Associate Professor of Religion and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Korean Buddhism in the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, in the context of colonialism, imperialism, and identity. Affiliated with Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

Xi Lian
Professor of World Christianity, Duke University
Research interests: China’s modern encounter with Christianity, Protestantism and Chinese modernity, Christianity and China’s minority peoples.

Levi McLaughlin
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Religious traditions of Japan and China, history of modern Asia, theories and methodologies of the study of religion, religion and modernity, religion and politics in Asia, Buddhism in modern society, anthropology of religion.

Sociology

Yong Cai
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Social demography, sociology of health, Chinese society, comparative historical sociology, research methodology.

Bai Gao
Professor of Sociology, Duke University
Research Interests: Economic sociology, organizational analysis, comparative historical sociology, political economy, Japanese society, Chinese society, East Asian capitalism.

Gary Gereffi
Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness, Duke University
Research interests: Sociology of development, multinational corporations, economic sociology, research methods in macrosociology, global commodity chains (all with an emphasis on Latin America and East Asia).

Lisa Keister
Professor of Sociology and Director of the Markets and Management Program, Duke University
Research interests: Economic sociology, organizations, social stratification and inequality, Chinese business.

Giovanna Merli
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Research Professor of Global Health, Duke University
Research interests: health policy (global health and HIV/AIDS); social policy, demography, contemporary Chinese society, China’s population control program

Yi Zeng
Professor, Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development / Geriatrics Division of the Medical Center, Population Research Institute and Dept. of Sociology, Duke University
Research interests: Determinants of Healthy Longevity in China, Family Households Forecasting Methods and Applications

Theater

Claire Conceison
Professor of Theater Studies, Duke University
Research interests: Contemporary Chinese theatre, US-China cultural relations, intercultural performance, translation studies, Asian American theatre and film, performance studies (including sport as performance)

Gary Mathews
Teaching Associate Professor, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Greek and Latin Literature, Japanese Noh Drama, Comparative Drama Theory, World and Comparative Literature

Jiayun Zhuang
Assistant Professor of Asian Theater and Performance, Performance Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Theories of the body, performance and urban space, and East Asian theatre/performance in relation to Inter-Asia cultural studies

Intimate Empire