Curriculum Vitae

Education

Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.

Ph.D., History
(Since Fall 2018)

• Major field: East and Central Asia

• Dissertation: “Exodus: The Vietnamese Boat People in British Hong Kong” (tentative)

• Advisor: James A. Millward

• Course highlights: “History Core Colloquium”; “Late Imperial China”; “20th-Century China”; “Vietnam War”; “Pacific Empires”; International Relations of Southeast Asia”

New York University
New York

M.A., Humanities and Social Thought, with concentration in Global Histories
September 2017

• Thesis: “Pearl of the Orient Reconstructed: How Great Power Politics Shaped Hong Kong’s Sovereignty”

• Advisor: Jane Burbank; Reader: S. S. Sandhu

• Course highlights: “Empires, States, and Political Imagination”; “Radicalism in Transnational Asia”; “Human Rights and ‘Humanitarian’ Interventions”; “The American Empire and its New Left Critics”; “American Capitalism in Global Historical Perspective”; “History of American Higher Education”

B.A., History & Journalism, with high honors
May 2016

• Thesis: “Music Below the Lion Rock: Social and Political Life in Hong Kong through the Lens of Transnational Cantopop, 1964–2004”

• Advisor: David Ludden; Reader: Thomas D. Looser

• Course highlights: “Historical Interpretation”; “Global Asia”; “Global Cities in History: From New Orleans to Shanghai”; “Multinational Britain”; “New York City: A Social History”; “Theories of Political Economy: From Smith to Sachs”; “Latin America and the Cold War”; “Media Past and Future”; “Journalism of Empathy”; “Political Cinema and the ‘Other’”

• Study away: N.Y.U. Washington, D.C., Fall 2014

Renaissance College
Hong Kong

I.B. Diploma Program, with Bilingual Diploma in Chinese and English
May 2013

I.B. Middle Years Program
June 2011

Professional Experience

University of Toronto
Toronto

Visiting Scholar
Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library & Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs
September 2017 – July 2018

“Decoding Hong Kong’s History”
Hong Kong

Co-founder and Researcher
November 2016 – present

Historian
New York

Staff Editor
October 2015 – May 2016

Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Washington, D.C.

Junior Curator
Division of Home and Community Life
September – December 2014

Honors, Grants, and Scholarships

• History Department Five-Year Ph.D. Fellowship (100%)
  Department of History, Georgetown University
  Washington, D.C., 2018–23

• Master’s Award for Academic Achievement in the Humanities (department nomination)
  Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 2018

• Rose and Herbert H. Hirschhorn Thesis Award
  Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 2018

• Speaker Honorarium
  Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
  Toronto, March 2018

• B.A.-M.A. Dual Degree Program Scholarship (50%)
  Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, January 2015 – September 2017

• Summer Travel Grant
  Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 2017

• Phi Beta Kappa / Albert S. Borgman Memorial Prize (department nomination)
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 2016

• Best History Honors Thesis
  Department of History, New York University
  New York, May 2016

• Helen M. Jones Prize in History
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 2016

• Founders Day Award
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, April 2016

• Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, November 2015

• Achievement in Social Science Research (nomination)
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, April 2015

• Guest Speaker Honorarium
  China Initiative, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University
  Providence, R.I., October 2014

• Best Speaker
  Hong Kong International Schools Chinese Debating Championship
  Hong Kong, November 2012

• Best Speaker
  Asia Pacific Chinese–English Bilingual Debate Competition
  Taipei, June 2012

• Excellence in Chinese Reading & Writing
  Chinese Department, Renaissance College
  Hong Kong, June 2011

• Excellence in Chinese Reading & Writing
  Chinese Department, Renaissance College
  Hong Kong, June 2010

Talks and Conferences

• Hong Kong and Beyond: Mapping the City’s Networks
  Session: Hong Kong’s Future
  Presentation: “Between Two Allies: The Reagan Administration and the Sino-British Negotiations, 1982-84”
  Hong Kong History Project, University of Bristol
  Bristol, England, Jan. 14–15, 2019

• The State of Hong Kong’s Authoritarian Turn: A Conversation with Youth Political Activists
  Institute for Global History & Asian Studies Program, Georgetown University
  Washington, D.C., Dec. 4, 2018

• Annual Advocacy Conference (Session: Working Together with Allies)
  Formosan Association for Public Affairs
  Arlington, Va., Sept. 15, 2018

• 1st International Congress of Youth Voices
  San Francisco, Aug. 3–5, 2018

• Brief From the Field: Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan & East Turkestan
  Freedom House & Students for a Free Tibet
  Washington, D.C., June 6, 2018

• Youth Politics and Activism in East Asia: Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong
  Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
  Toronto, March 26, 2018

• Exploring the HKSAR, China, and Taiwan: What Has Changed in the Past 20 Years and a Look Ahead to the Future
  Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society, University of Toronto
  Toronto, Jan. 12, 2018

• Perspectives on Hong Kong: Roundtable Luncheon
  National Committee on U.S.–China Relations
  New York, May 4, 2017

• Hong Kong’s Possible Futures
  Winston Lord Roundtable on Asia, the Rule of Law, and U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
  New York, Nov. 14, 2016

• History Honors Colloquium
  Presentation: “Transnational Influences on Cantopop in the 1980s: From Taiwanese Campus Folk Songs to ‘We Are the World’”
  Department of History, New York University
  New York, May 10, 2016

• 42nd Annual Undergraduate Research Conference
  Session: Culture and Society III
  Presentation: “Cantopop and Human Rights: Local, National, and Global Origins of ‘All for Freedom’ and the Concert for Democracy in China”
  College of Arts and Science, New York University
  New York, May 6, 2016

• #Talk4TW with Gordon G. Chang: The Sunflower and Umbrella Movements
  Rutgers University-New Brunswick
  Piscataway, N.J., Dec. 7, 2014

• Hong Kong Political Panel
  Hong Kong Students and Scholars Society, Columbia University
  New York, Oct. 17, 2014

• The Future of Democracy in Hong Kong: A Teach-in
  Presentation: “Three Characteristics of the Umbrella Movement”
  China Initiative, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
  Providence, R.I., Oct. 6, 2014

Languages

• Cantonese, English, Mandarin (native); Vietnamese, Japanese (elementary)

• Proficient reading knowledge in Traditional, Simplified, and Classical Chinese

Extracurricular Activities

New York University
New York

• Hong Kong Student Association

  • Graduate Student Advisor, 2016–17

  • Public Relations, 2015–16

• Office of Global Programs

  • Global Ambassador, 2015–16

Renaissance College
Hong Kong

• Chinese Debating Society

  • Team Captain, 2010–13

  • Debater, 2008–13

Affiliations

• American Historical Association: Student Member, since 2015

• PEN Hong Kong: Member, since 2018

• Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations: Student Member, since 2017

• Society for Hong Kong Studies: Member and Graduate Students Coordinator (Overseas), since 2018