Kellee Tsai

Kellee Tsai, PhD, became the new Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities on February 26, 2024. Her career spans leadership roles in higher education, most recently as dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science and Chair Professor of Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. At Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dean Tsai served as associate director of the Center for AI Research and founding director of the center’s AI Ethics and Governance Lab, where she brought the social sciences and humanities into conversations on ethical uses for AI.

Previously she spent thirteen years at Johns Hopkins University, as a Professor of Political Science; Vice Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Director of the East Asian Studies Program. Dean Tsai is also an international board member of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore and the India-China Institute at the New School for Social Research in New York.

Dean Tsai’s research focuses on the political economy of China, with an emphasis on party-state capitalism, the surveillance industry and the local developmental impact of reverse migration in China and India.

Dean Tsai holds a BA in Political Science from Barnard College, a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.