Welcome New Faculty!

Asian Studies is pleased to welcome several new faculty to campus in Fall 2024! Their research focuses on various aspects of Asia, from political science and history to philosophy and ancient studies.

They are all offering exciting classes in Spring 2025 – when advising opens, be sure to sign up for one (or more!) that catches your eye!

A photo of Dr. Randolph Ford, in front of a verdant backdrop. Dr. Ford is wearing a brown suit with a blue shirt and a brown floral tie. He has eyeglasses and wavy, shoulder-length dark hair.

Dr. Randolph Ford, Ancient Studies

Dr. Ford is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Studies. He received BA and MA degrees in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MPhil and PhD from New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. His research and scholarship have focused primarily on the comparative study of history and historiography of the Greco-Roman world, especially in Late Antiquity, and the history and historiography of early medieval China and Central Asia.

A formal portrait of Dr. Lee in front of a gray studio backdrop. He is wearing a black shirt and eyeglasses and is smiling.

Dr. Joonho Lee, Philosophy

Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. His area of specialization is ancient Chinese philosophy, with a particular interest in philosophical issues surrounding moral motivation in Mencius. He completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Utah. His dissertation also focused on Mencius’ moral psychology, but examines how various types of irrationality, such as self-deception and temptation, shape proper moral motivation in his view.

A portrait of Dr. Thornburg, who is smiling. She is wearing eyeglasses and a red blouse under a black jacket. She has chin-length dark hair.

Dr. Mika Thornburg, Asian Studies

Dr. Mika Thornburg is a Postdoctoral Fellow of Global Asias in the Asian Studies Department. She is a historian and Asian Americanist interested in postwar transpacific empire and public history. Her research examines tourism, colonialism, gender and US-Japan relations in the postwar Pacific. Her work interrogates the possibilities and limitations of tourism, particularly in the transimperial system of the postwar Pacific. It reframes Cold War US-Japan relations as symbiosis between two imperial nations. Her work has been supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and the Mellon Foundation.

A portrait of Dr. Wang, taken in front of a gray studio backdrop. Dr. Wang is wearing eyeglasses and a dark blue button-down shirt. She has dark hair and is smiling.

Dr. Guan Wang, Political Science

Guan Wang is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, an MA from George Washington University, and a BA from Peking University in China. Her research and teaching interests focus on China’s foreign relations, U.S.-China relations, U.S. foreign policy, and research methods in political science. From 2017 to 2018, she worked as an Assistant Research Fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, China, where she conducted research on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

A portrait of Dr. Zhang, who is standing in the courtyard of a brick building. She is wearing a brown suit and has shoulder-length dark hair; she is smiling and her arms are crossed.

Dr. Jinghong Zhang, History

Dr. Jinghong Zhang is a historian of modern China and East Asia. Zhang is interested in the social and cultural history of modern China, the history of medicine, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). She is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Down to the Roots: The History of Dentistry and Oral Hygiene in Modern China, which is the very first historical monograph that examines the development of dentistry in China from the late imperial era to contemporary times.