• Originally from Lakewood, Colorado, I completed my Ph.D. in modern Chinese history at Stanford University in 2016, and I received my B.A. in History and Asian Studies from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2008. At the core of my research interests lies the interplay between identity-building, state-society relations, and the construction of knowledge. My research has examined these themes in the history of modern China—from gender relations, to language policy, and food.

    I also love to teach. My teaching interests are wide-ranging, from ancient to modern, from local to global, but I primarily enjoy using teaching to explore with students how the study of history informs our present— together drawing upon a complex past so as to envision a malleable future.

    • Stanford University, Ph.D.
    • Indiana University of Pennsylvania, B.A.
    • Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960 (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
    • "Orbiting the Core": Politics and the Meaning of Chinese Linguistics, 1927-1957." Twentieth-Century China, 2016
    • "What Liu Xiaobo's Death Says About China's Two Futures." The Nation, July 25, 2017
    • "Tongue-tied in Hong Kong: The fight for two systems and two languages." Foreign Affairs, August 3, 2016.
    • History of China
    • History of Modern East Asia
    • Race and Ethnicity in East Asia
    • Gender in China
    • Young Alumni Achievement Award, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2019
    • Mellon Dissertation Award, 2015
    • Fulbright-Hays Award, 2013
    • Blakemore Award, 2011
    • Fulbright IIE, 2008