Below you will find a list of Northeastern faculty members who specialize in Asia-related research topics and/or teach Asia-related courses, including Asian/American matters. The more you know, the more opportunities you can access, including finding courses for the Global Asian Studies major and minor or capstone advisors.

East Asia

Faculty with Research Interests in East Asia

Daniel Aldrich

Professor, Political Science and Public Policy; Director of the Resiliences Studies Program; Co-Director of the Global Resilience Institute

An award winning author, Aldrich has published five books including Building Resilience and Black Wave, more than 95 peer-reviewed articles, and written op-eds for the New York Times, CNN, HuffPost, and many other media outlets. He has spent more tha…
Kevin Baldwin

Part-Time Lecturer of Music

Kevin Baldwin is a saxophonist and composer with extensive training in modern and experimental techniques. As a saxophonist, Kevin has traveled and performed as a soloist and in ensembles all over the world, including Canada, France, Italy, and China
Jonathan Benda

Teaching Professor in English

My teaching and research grow out of my experiences in Taiwan, where I worked for 16 years before coming to Northeastern. I write about US-Taiwan intercultural relations and the rhetorical representations of self and other in intercultural contexts. …
Qinghong (Ann) Cai

Teaching Professor of Chinese

Dr. Ann Cai, Full Teaching Professor of the College of Social Science and Humanities at Northeastern University (NU). Ed.D. in Educational Psychology. Dr. Cai has extensive teaching experience at NU, Harvard University & MIT. She has received dis…
Myojung Chung

Assistant Professor of Journalism

Myojung Chung’s primary research focuses on the intersection of new media, public opinion, and policy making. She is particularly interested in the spread and consequences of misinformation as well as countermeasures to combat misinformation. Dr. Chu
Jennifer Cullen

Associate Teaching Professor

Jennifer Cullen has a PhD in Modern Japanese Literature from UCLA. She is the managing editor of the U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. Her writings include “A Comparative Study of Tenkō: Sata Ineko and Miyamoto Yuriko,” and Writing Purity: The Rise of Virg…
Anthony Paul De Ritis

Professor of Music

De Ritis often works with Chinese traditional instruments. The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, where De Ritis was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Fall 2011, published his Selected Works for Pipa (2016) featuring compositions p
Hua Dong

Principal Lecturer in Chinese; Coordinator of the Chinese Program

Hua Dong serves as coordinator of the Chinese program. She teaches courses on Chinese language and culture and has also developed and led the Chinese language Dialogue of Civilizations in China in the past 10 summers. Prior to coming to Northeastern …
Michael Enright

Pierre Choueiri Family Professor in Global Business

Michael Enright is a leading expert on international competitiveness, regional economic development, and international business strategy. As a researcher, he has written definitive works on the strategies and organizations of multinational companies,
Tom Havens

Professor of History, Emeritus

Educated in history at Princeton and UC Berkeley, Tom Havens taught at University of Toronto, Connecticut College, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and UC Berkeley before arriving at Northeastern in 1999 as professor and chair of the Histo…
Mark Henderson

James Irvine Professor of Public Policy

Mark Henderson, a graduate of Williams College, Harvard University, and the University of California, Berkeley, teaches in the fields of public policy and environmental studies at Mills College. He has also taught at the University of California, Da
Jonathan Kaufman

Professor of Journalism, School Director

Kaufman is the author of The Last Kings of Shanghai (Viking), a history of two families – the Sassoons and the Kadoories – who stood astride Chinese business and politics for the past 150 years and have shaped the rise of modern China. He is also the
Risa Kitagawa

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Risa Kitagawa Amano is a political scientist specializing in transitional justice, human rights, and legacies of conflict. Her research in Japan and East Asia examines the politics of historical reckoning and state apologies over wartime crimes.
Cynthia Lee

D’Amore-McKim Distinguished Professor

Lee teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Organizational Behavior, International Management, Organizational behavior in co-op settings, and Leadership in diverse and multicultural environments. She has taught Ph.D. seminars on employment rela
Jung Lee

Associate Professor of Religious Studies; Undergraduate Program Director (Religious Studies)

Jung Lee is an associate professor of religious studies at Northeastern University. He received his B.A. from Amherst College, and his Ph.D. from Brown University in religious studies. Professor Lee teaches and publishes in the areas of religious eth…
Chuncheng Liu

Assistant Professor, Communications Studies and Sociology

Chuncheng Liu is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology. His research interests span science and technology studies (STS), political sociology, critical data studies, economic sociology, medical sociology, and mixed methods. …
Rei Okamoto Inouye

Teaching Professor of Japanese; Coordinator of the Japanese Program

Rei Okamoto Inouye was born in Tokyo and raised in Saitama, Japan. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo (BA in English and American Literature), Dr. Inouye worked as a book editor in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, religion, …
Eileen Otis

Associate Professor of Sociology

Eileen Otis is an Associate Professor of Sociology. She is the author of the award-winning book Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work and the Making of Inequality in China. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Politi…
Kunyuan Qiao

Assistant Professor of International Business and Strategy and Assistant Professor of Sociology

Kunyuan Qiao is interested in understanding how history, geography, and institutions may affect present-day international business and strategy. He holds a PhD from Cornell University.
Ravi Ramamurti

University Distinguished Professor, International Business and Strategy; Director, Center for Emerging Markets

Ramamurti does research and consulting on strategy and innovation in emerging economies. His earlier work also focused on business-government relations in emerging economies. He has published several articles and books on multinationals from emerging
Ettore Santi

Assistant Professor of Architecture and Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies

Ettore Santi is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the School of Architecture and in the Department of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies. Ettore’s work connects studies of the built environment with debates in rural geography, a…
H. David Sherman

Professor, Accounting

Sherman’s research has long focused on financial reporting, performance measurement/management, and financial literacy issues facing corporate management and Boards of Directors in global businesses. He also actively studies methods to improve produc
Gahye Song

Visiting Lecturer in Korean

Gahye Song’s primary research interests lie in describing grammar use in naturally-occurring social interaction and incorporating these insights into second and foreign language grammar instruction. She is also interested in using conversation …
Philip Thai

Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies; Director of Global Asian Studies

Philip Thai is a historian of Modern China and East Asia with research and teaching interests that include legal history, economic history, and diplomatic history. He is currently working on his new book tentatively titled, “In the Shadows of the Bam…
Michael Thornton

Assistant Teaching Professor of History

Michael Thornton teaches and researches Japanese and East Asian history, with a particular interest in the history of cities and urbanization. He has two major projects underway: the first focuses on the relationship between urbanization and colonial…
Kellee Tsai

Dean, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

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 Profess…
Kumiko Tsuji

Teaching Professor of Japanese

Kumiko Tsuji was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from Sophia University in Tokyo, she obtained her MA in English (TESOL) from California State University and her PhD in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University. The focus o…
Vanessa Wei

Associate Teaching Professor of Chinese; Associate Director of the Less Commonly Taught Languages

Vanessa Wei teaches all level of Chinese. As an educator, she strives to provide an immersive environment for students to develop proficiency in Chinese by using a communicative and tasked-based teaching approach. As a researcher, she conducts classr…
Margaret Y. K. Woo

Professor of Law

Professor Woo, a leading expert on the Anglo-American legal system and the Chinese socialist legal system, teaches Civil Procedure, Administrative Law and Comparative Law.
Shuishan Yu

Associate Professor of Architecture

Shuishan Yu’s research focuses on Chinese architecture, modern architecture and its theoretical discourse, literati arts, and Buddhist architecture in East Asia. His book Chang’an Avenue and the Modernization of Chinese Architecture was published in
Qianqian Zhang-Wu

Assistant Professor of English; Director of Multilingual Writing

A passionate researcher, a devoted educator, and a nerdy applied linguist, Dr. Qianqian Zhang-Wu’s research focuses on multilingualism, multilingual writing, translingualism and TESOL. Her work appears in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, such as …

Faculty by Regional Specialty

East Asia

Faculty with Research Interests in East Asia

Daniel Aldrich

Professor, Political Science and Public Policy; Director of the Resiliences Studies Program; Co-Director of the Global Resilience Institute

Kevin Baldwin

Part-Time Lecturer of Music

Jonathan Benda

Teaching Professor in English

Qinghong (Ann) Cai

Teaching Professor of Chinese

Myojung Chung

Assistant Professor of Journalism

Jennifer Cullen

Associate Teaching Professor

Anthony Paul De Ritis

Professor of Music

Hua Dong

Principal Lecturer in Chinese; Coordinator of the Chinese Program

Michael Enright

Pierre Choueiri Family Professor in Global Business

Tom Havens

Professor of History, Emeritus

Mark Henderson

James Irvine Professor of Public Policy

Jonathan Kaufman

Professor of Journalism, School Director

Risa Kitagawa

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Cynthia Lee

D’Amore-McKim Distinguished Professor

Jung Lee

Associate Professor of Religious Studies; Undergraduate Program Director (Religious Studies)

Chuncheng Liu

Assistant Professor, Communications Studies and Sociology

Rei Okamoto Inouye

Teaching Professor of Japanese; Coordinator of the Japanese Program

Eileen Otis

Associate Professor of Sociology

Kunyuan Qiao

Assistant Professor of International Business and Strategy and Assistant Professor of Sociology

Ravi Ramamurti

University Distinguished Professor, International Business and Strategy; Director, Center for Emerging Markets

Ettore Santi

Assistant Professor of Architecture and Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies

H. David Sherman

Professor, Accounting

Gahye Song

Visiting Lecturer in Korean

Philip Thai

Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies; Director of Global Asian Studies

Michael Thornton

Assistant Teaching Professor of History

Kellee Tsai

Dean, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Kumiko Tsuji

Teaching Professor of Japanese

Vanessa Wei

Associate Teaching Professor of Chinese; Associate Director of the Less Commonly Taught Languages

Margaret Y. K. Woo

Professor of Law

Shuishan Yu

Associate Professor of Architecture

Qianqian Zhang-Wu

Assistant Professor of English; Director of Multilingual Writing

Southeast Asia

Faculty with Research Interests in Southeast Asia

Doreen Lee

Acting Director of the Asia and the World Program; Associate Professor of Anthropology

Gavin Shatkin

Director, MS in Urban Planning and Policy & MA in International Affairs; Professor of Public Policy & Architecture

Lizzie Yarina

Assistant Professor, School of Architecture; Affiliate faculty in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Global Asian Studies

South Asia

Faculty with Research Interests in South Asia

Anjanette Chan Tack

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies

Emily Clough

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

M. Whitney Kelting