Program Administrators

  • Hometown: Shenzhen, China 

    Previous education: Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), Politics and Government

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Personal interest: Playing and composing music, reading, writing, traveling

  • Hometown: Shanghai, China

    Previous Education: New York University; International Relations, East Asian Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic and Research Interests: US-China relations, strategic competitions in East Asia, regional cooperative mechanisms

    Career Interests: Government institutions, think tank, consulting

    Thesis Title: The “Iron Curtain” Descends in the Semiconductor Industry: Intensifying Technology Competition between the United States and China Between 2017-2022

  • Hometown: Beijing, China

    Undergraduate School of Study: University of Pennsylvania

    Undergraduate Major: Visual Studies

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title:Strategic Compliance, Fluid Morality: The Making of a Clinical Labor Market in Post-Socialist PRC

  • Hometown: Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Hulun Buir

    Research Interests: Chinese feminist history, masculinity and femininity, world/East Asian prostitution, Chinese women’s gentility, conventionalism/religion and feminism

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Yokohama, Japan

    Previous Education: Sophia University, Law

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

  • Hometown: Nanchong, China

    Previous Education: Sichuan University, Law and Finance

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Chengdu, China

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Guangzhou, China

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Shanghai

    Research Interests: Legal History, Chinese Legal System, "The Dual State" theory

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Jinan, China

    Research Interests: Chinese nationalism, Chinese censorship and propaganda, gender and economic participation in China

    Regions of Specialization: China, Japan

  • Previous Education: Tsinghua University, Sociology

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Shanghai, China

    Previous education: New York University; Media, Culture, and Communications

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Parachute generation, third culture kids, mixed cultural upbringing

    Thesis title: Chinese Parachute Kids in America: Understanding How the Parachute Experience Affects First Generation (Im)migrants in Young Adulthood

     

  • Hometown: Beijing, China

    Previous Education: UCSD; History and Clinical Psychology

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Xiaobo Lü is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science at Barnard College. Professor Lü was the founding Director of Columbia Global Centers | East Asia in Beijing in 2008-10. Professor Lü teaches courses on Chinese politics, political economy, and comparative politics. His research interests include post-socialist transition, corruption and good governance, regulatory reforms, and government-business relations. Currently he is working on a book manuscript, From Player to Referee: the Rise of the Regulatory State in China.

    Xiaobo Lü is a member of Council on Foreign Relations, Committee of 100, and the National Committee of US-China Relations. He is a regular commentator on China and US-China relations on PBS, CNN, BBC, and NPR and has delivered speeches and briefings to organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Foundation, the Asia Society, World Affairs Council, National Committee for US-China Relations, American Center for International Leadership, Asia Society, the China Institute of America, and the Japan Society.

    Professor Lü received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994.

  • Hometown: Sacramento, California/Beijing, China

    Research Interests: International Law, Constitutional Law, Modern Political Thought, Great Power Competition & Grand Strategy

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: New York City, NY

    Previous education: London School of Economics, Political Science and International Relations

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Intersection of domestic and foreign policy, modern Chinese history, international relations of Southeast Asia

    Thesis title: Discursive Battle in Singaporean Queer Politics

  • Hometown: Tampa, FL

    Previous Education: BA in Visual Art, Columbia University

    Specialization in MARSEA: Korea

    Academic Interests: Contemporary East Asian Art, Techno-Orientalism, Modern Asia Pacific History

    Personal Interests: Experimental and (very) conceptual Art

    Thesis Title: Chang Hyŏkchu and the New Women: Korean Women During Colonial Korea and Their Presence in Samgoksŏn

  • Hometown: Plymouth, Michigan and Shanghai, China

    Undergraduate School of Study: University of California, Los Angeles

    Undergraduate Major: History, Japanese Minor

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: Challenging "Tailor-Made": Uncovering Women’s Contributions to the Creation of Qipao

  • Hometown: Chicago, IL

    Previous Education: Loyola University Chicago, Global Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

    Academic and Research Interests: Modern Japanese history; family dynamics and gender inequality in Japan

  • Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Previous Education: Columbia College

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Previous education: Cambridge University, History

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Personal interests: Spending as much time as I can thinking about and being near the sun, sand and the sea

    Thesis Title: Managed Contestation and Complex Interdependencies: How China-Singapore Relations have evolved in the post-Lee Kuan Yew Years

  • Hometown: Augusta, Georgia

    Previous Education: Northeastern University, Major in Asian Studies - Minors in Chinese, Economics, and History

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic Interests: Chinese foreign policy and trade policy, particularly regarding the Central Asian region/Post-Soviet Republics; multipolar and multilateral organizations; geopolitics.

    Personal Interests: Food of all cuisines, fitness, music, contemporary popular culture, and community organizing!

    Thesis Title: Blueprint for Catastrophe? Assessing the Efficacy of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan

     

  • Hometown: Denver, Colorado

    Previous Education: Columbia University; East Asian Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: China


  • Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

    Previous Education: New York University, Politics and East Asian Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: Korea

    Academic Interests: US-Korea relations, East Asian geopolitics, security policy

    Personal Interests: Playing with my cat Mumu

    Thesis Title: The US-ROK Alliance: A Strategic Case for OPCON Transfer

  • Hometown: Hacienda Heights, California, USA

    Undergraduate School of Study: Vassar College 

    Undergraduate Major: Asian Studies, Chinese

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: The Search for Redress: Wartime Forced Labor Compensation and the Politics of Law in East Asia 

  • Research Interests: Sociology, anthropology, culture

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Naperville, IL

    Previous Education:  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, major in Accounting and a minor in EALC

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic Interests: China's social economics, culture, and language. 

    Personal Interests: Reading, watching movies, visiting museums (especially art museums), drawing, and dance.  

  • Hometown: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Previous education: Sarah Lawrence College, Pre-modern Chinese History and Philosophy

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Thesis title: China as Rentier State: the Political and Economic Impact of Land Financing in China

  • Hometown: Shanghai, China; Chicago, Illinois

    Previous education: University College London, History

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Social and cultural history of modern China from below, individual-society and state-society dynamics, cultural politics and the construction of historical memory, "public spheres" and public consciousness

    Thesis title: With Prussian Blue and Magnetite: From Adulteration to Transnational Innovation in Chinese Tea Production, c. 1800–1940

     

  • Hometown: Seoul & Vancouver

    Previous Education: Tufts University, Majors in International Relations East Asia and Japanese Language

    Specialization in MARSEA: Korea 

    Academic Interests: Modern East Asian History, International Relations of East Asia, security/geopolitic studies of the Korean Peninsula

    Personal Interests: Japanese Literature, Korean films, New England Patriots   

    Thesis Title: Reinterpreting “Minjok kaejoron”: How Yi Kwangsu’s Vision of National Reconstruction Embodied Confucian Principles

  • Hometown: Tokyo

    Research Interests: Sociology, Minority Studies, Social Psychology

    Region of Specialization: Japan

     

  • Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Undergraduate School of Study: Yale-NUS College

    Undergraduate Major: Law

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: The Chinese in Indonesia: Political Pariahs No More?

  • Hometown:  West Hartford, Connecticut

    Previous education:  Bates College, Chinese

    Specialization in MARSEA:  China

    Personal Interests:  History, sports, and music

    Thesis Title:Sharing the Future of China: Nationalism and The Belt and Road in the 21st Century

  • Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Previous education: University of Cambridge, Social Anthropology and Politics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Thesis title: Crossing National Frames: Emigration From Reform-Era China to Singapore

  • Hometown: Guiyang, China

    Previous education: Peking University, International Politics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Thesis title: Social Capital and the Integration of College Graduates from Rural Areas in Urban China

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Undergraduate School of Study: King's College London

    Undergraduate Major: Law

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: Disputed Islands and the Waves of Nationalism: Understanding how Nationalism and Political Legitimacy Affects China’s Strategy in Dealing with its Island Disputes

  • Hometown: Washington, DC

    Previous education: Columbia College

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Fashion & luxury business relations between China and Europe

     

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Previous education: Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford; History and Politics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Global Early Modernity, and its continued parallels and connections to Contemporary International Affairs

     

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Undergraduate School of Study: University College London

    Undergraduate Major: Philosophy

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: China’s Ball Game – A Discourse Analysis of Chinese Media Reports on Table Tennis

     

  • Hometown: Beijing, China and North Carolina

    Previous education: UNC-Chapel Hill, History and Economics 

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic interests: Mixed sociological methods, gender/women, collective resistance, social stratification, migration, Chinese society

     

  • Lin is the Program Coordinator of Student Affairs at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Previously, she taught the course "University Writing" as part of Columbia's undergraduate Core Curriculum. Lin holds an MFA from Columbia's School of the Arts and a BA from Princeton University. She is from Taipei and speaks Mandarin, Japanese, and English.

  • Hometown: Huizhou, China

    Previous Education: King's College London

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Hong Kong, China

    Undergraduate School of Study: King’s College London, UK

    Undergraduate Major: Law

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: Hong Kong and China: Express Railway to Integration

     

  • Hometown: Wuhan, China

    Previous Education: Vanderbilt University; History and Economics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China 

    Academic and Research Interests: Gender studies in modern China/modern Chinese literature, modern Chinese history and politics

     

  • Hometown: Busan, Korea

    Previous education: Georgetown University; International Business and Regional Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: Korea and China

    Research interests: the relationship between economic prosperity and nationalism in Korea and China

    Thesis title: Exploring the Decline of K-beauty in China: An Analysis of Amore Pacific & LG Household & Health Care

     

  • Kim Brandt is Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.  She serves as the Academic Director of the MARSEA program, and teaches the yearlong Core Seminar.  Professor Brandt received her Ph.D. in modern Japanese history at Columbia University in 1996.  She taught at Amherst College before returning to Columbia in 2007. Her publications include Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art in Imperial Japan, published in 2007 by Duke University Press.  Currently she is completing a second book project titled Japan’s Cultural Miracle: Rethinking the Rise of a World Power, which is under contract at Columbia University Press.

  • Hometown: Tokyo, Japan

    Previous education: Keio University, Political Science

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

    Thesis: Development of American Interest in Japanese Ceramics since the Late Nineteenth Century

  • Hometown: Penang, Malaysia and Singapore

    Undergraduate School of Study: Columbia University

    Undergraduate Major: History

    MARSEA Specialization: China/British Malaya

    Thesis Title: In Queer Straits: Sexuality, Medicine, and Orientalism in British Malaya, 1875-1947

  • Hometown: Huntington, NY

    Previous education: Pennsylvania State University, BA in History (with Honors), BA in Asian Studies and BS in International Studies, minor in Japanese 

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

    Academic interests: Occupation-era and post-war Japan

    Personal interests: movies, music, museums, and travel

    Thesis title:Protesting Futenma: Okinawa's Fourth Wave of Protests (2013-2021)

  • Hometown: Singapore

    Previous Education: University of Oxford, Jurisprudence

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic and Research Interests: Legal institutions, Chinese law, Belt and Road, Confucianism

    Career Interests: Public Service

    Thesis title: China before Xi in 2008: The story of Supreme People’s Court Justice Huang Songyou as an Account of China’s Backslide from the Rule of Law

  • Hometown: Hangzhou, China

    Undergraduate School of Study: Fudan University, China

    Undergraduate Major: English

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: Discipline and Incite: Ideological and Political Education in Chinese Universities

  • Hometown: Long Island, New York

    Previous education: Georgetown University, Sociology

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Family in modern China

    Thesis title: Migrating Chinese Grandparents Providing Child Care for Their Grandchildren

     

  • Hometown: Hong Kong

    Previous Education: University of Chicago, History

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Beijing, China

    Hometown: Weston, Massachusetts

    Previous education: Harvard University, Neuroscience

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Personal interest: I'm trained in mental health first aid!

  • Hometown: Beijing, China

    Previous Education: Peking University; International Politics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic and Research Interests: Chinese political attitudes, Chinese nationalism, and Chinese foreign policy

    Career Interests: Academics

  • Previous Education: University of Georgia, Economics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Yokohama, Japan

    Previous education: The University of Tokyo, International Relations

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Chinese politics and foreign policy

     

  • Regions of Specialization: Korea, China

  • Hometown: Chicago

    Region of Specialization: Korea

  • Hometown: Dongguan, China

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Sichuan, China 

    Previous Education: Brown University, majoring in International Relations  

    Specialization in MARSEA: China 

    Academic Interests: Sino-Tibet relations; Tibetan Buddhism 

    Personal Interests: Street dance & horseback riding

    Thesis Title: The Revival of Tibetan Buddhism in Contemporary Chengdu (1980-2020)

  • Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

    Previous Education: Smith College (BA in Government and East Asian Studies)

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan 

    Academic Interests: New media in Japan and Korea, transnational projects

    Personal Interests: Films

    Thesis Tile: The Third Korean Wave (Hallyu): YouTube, Instagram, and K-culture in Japan and the World

  • Hometown: Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Research Interests: Imperial Japan, History of Education, Communism in East Asia, Japanese Labor History

    Region of Focus: Japan

  • Hometown: Katy, TX

    Previous Education: Texas A&M University College Station

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

    Thesis Title: Held Hostage: Japan's Lawmakers and the Self Defense Force

  • Regional Focus: China

    Previous Institution: Renmin University of China

    Thesis Title: Rural Women and Socialist Laws: The 1950 Marriage Law and Its Implementation Campaigns in 1950s Shaanxi

  • Hometown: Shanghai, China

    Previous Education: University of British Columbia, Political Science

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Toronto, Canada

    Previous Education: Williams College with a double major in Economics and Chinese

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic and Research Interests: Chinese Foreign Policy, The Chinese Economy, Chinese Financial Markets,
    International Finance

    Career Interests: International Finance

  • Hometown: Portland, Oregon

    Previous Education: U.S. Air Force Academy, Foreign Area Studies

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

  • Hometown: Beijing. China

    Previous Education: Haverford College, East Asian Languages and Cultures

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

  • Hometown: Zhanjiang (Guangdong), China

    Previous education: The George Washington University, International Affairs and Economics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic interests: China’s soft power strategy, public diplomacy, and their impact on its foreign policy

    Personal interests: Pilates, baking, and watching Chinese spy movies!

     

  • Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

    Previous education: Swarthmore College, Asian Studies and Political Science

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan and Korea

  • Hometown: New York City

    Undergraduate School of Study: University of Tokyo

    Undergraduate Major: East Asian Studies

    MARSEA Specialization: Japan

    Thesis Title: Immortalizing, Isolating, and Rejecting: Circles and War Memory in 1950s Japan

  • Hometown: Zigong, China

    Previous Education: Kings College London; Politics

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic and Research Interests: People's Congress system through the lens of policy analysis, e.g. the policymaking process of a bill on environmental protection at the local level; human rights diplomacy, more specifically to deconstruct Western supremacy on the issue of human rights

    Career Interests: Work in the consultancy/think tank industry and eventually open one by myself to facilitate communications between China and the world

  • Hometown: Beijing, China

    Previous Education: Peking University

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Academic Interests: Economics and Politics

    Personal Interests: Playing soccer and video games

    Thesis Title: Why did land sale and debt result in accumulating financial and fiscal risk since 2000 in China? The role of “unfunded mandate” of local governments

  • Hometown: Canterbury, England

    Previous education: Trinity College, University of Cambridge; Chinese Studies with Japanese

    Specialization in MARSEA: China

    Research interests: Modern Chinese political history, and the intellectual history of Modern China

    Thesis title: A Moment of Truce: Rereading the Tanggu Agreement

  • Hometown: New Jersey

    Previous Education: Oberlin College & Conservatory, Associated Kyoto Program, and Yonsei University; East Asian Studies, History, and Cello Performance

    Specialization in MARSEA: Japan

    Academic and Research Interests: Education about societal roles and future challenges

  • Research Interests: US-Sino-Russian relations, the war in Ukraine, political economy in China, Korean Peninsula relations

    Previous Education: Fudan University

    Regions of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Stamford, CT

    Research Interests: US national security, Chinese international politics, Indo-pacific maritime security, and AUKUS

    Region of Specialization: China

  • Hometown: Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), Aotearoa, New Zealand.

    Undergraduate School of Study: Victoria University of Wellington

    Undergraduate Major: Chinese, Asian Studies and International Relations

    MARSEA Specialization: China

    Thesis Title: The Aftermath: Transitional Justice in China’s Hunan Province Following the Cultural Revolution

  • Hometown: Oak Park, Illinois, USA

    Undergraduate School of Study: University of Illinois: Chicago

    Undergraduate Major: Political Science

    MARSEA Specialization: Japan and Korea

    Thesis Title: Raising a Problem: The Sendai Flag-Raising Incident and Shifting Perceptions of the "Korean Problem" in Early Occupied Japan (1945-1949)