Wen-hsin Yeh is a Professor and Richard H. and Laurie C. Morrison Chair Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. A Distinguished Professor, her work focuses on East Asia with specialization in late imperial and modern China, Taiwan, and Maritime East Asia. BA, National Taiwan University PhD, University of California, Berkeley Her research explores the interplay of culture, politics, and economics in China’s historical development. Key areas include ideological movements, urban transformation, and regional dynamics during the late Qing and Republican eras. Yeh’s publications span theoretical and empirical analyses of modern Chinese history. The 2008 monograph Shanghai Splendor investigates economic sentiments and urban modernity, while Provincial Passages (1996) examines cultural geography and early communist movements. Her 1994 China Quarterly article on Zhejiang radicals highlights regional intellectual networks during the May Fourth Movement. Earlier work like The Alienated Academy (1990) dissects academic culture under Republican governance.
Frank Li is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech, affiliated with the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and School of Electrical & Computer Engineering . His research focuses on computer security and privacy , particularly internet, network, and web security, with a data-driven approach. Education : PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, BS in Computer Science from MIT (Course 6-3) Experience : Previously a visiting researcher at Facebook, with internships at Google and Microsoft Research Research interests include empirical computer security , internet measurement, password policies, IoT security, browser extensions, and DeFi vulnerabilities. His work combines large-scale data analysis, network traffic studies, and user behavior experiments. His publications highlight trends in IPv6 adoption , security notifications, password masking, third-party web content, and PLC security evaluation. Teaching awards include the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching (Annual CIOS Award and Semester Honor Roll) at Georgia Tech. He leads the BEES Lab (Better Empirically Established Security), which investigates security and privacy issues through internet-wide measurements, network traffic analysis, and data mining. Lab members include PhD and MS students in computer science.
Dr. Joshua Savala is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), part of the College of Liberal Arts. He holds a PhD from Cornell University (2019) and previously taught at Rollins College in Florida. His research focuses on Latin American social movements, transnational histories of the Pacific, and labor solidarity in the Andean and Southern Cone regions. Key areas of expertise include maritime workers, anarchism, public health epidemics, and border studies. Education: PhD in History, Cornell University (2019) MA in History, Cornell University (2015) MA in History, Tufts University (2012) BA in History and Sociology, University of California, Davis (2007) Research Interests: His groundbreaking work examines collaborative relationships between Peruvians and Chileans in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including studies on cholera epidemics, anarchist networks, and cross-border solidarity. Recent projects investigate cooperative urban planning on the U.S.-Mexico border and disaster responses in Valparaíso. Publications: Includes the award-winning book Beyond Patriotic Phobias (2022) and articles in Hispanic American Historical Review and Journal of Social History . His Spanish translation Más allá de la guerra (2024) is a binational publication with universities in Peru and Chile. Awards: Best Book (Social Sciences) on the Southern Cone (Honorable Mention), 2023 Flora Tristán Book Prize (Honorable Mention), 2023 José María Arguedas Prize, 2020 Teaching: Teaches courses on Modern Latin America, Pacific World histories, and borderland studies. Recent courses include Studies in Latin American History and South America Since 1810 . Labs/Teams: Engaged with UTEP's Borderlands Digital Humanities Center and the Institute of Oral History, emphasizing collaborative interdisciplinary projects.
Engseng Ho is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and former Professor of History at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences since 2008. His work focuses on Arab/Muslim diasporas across the Indian Ocean, global transregional dynamics, and historical interactions between empires and local societies. Education: PhD (2000), MA (1990) in Anthropology from University of Chicago; BA (1986) from Stanford University. Research interests include mobility studies, transregional legal frameworks, and the intersection of Islam with imperial and postcolonial contexts. Notable projects involve Inter-Asia collaborations and studies on China-Africa relations, oil economies, and Malay sovereignty. Recent grants include funding from the National Science Foundation for research on refugees, Azerbaijan's oil-driven geopolitics, and a global religion dissertation fellowship program. Teaching spans courses on imperialism, mobility, global culture, and anthropological theory. His expertise spans Africa, India, Indonesia, and Yemen.
Emilia Oddo is an Associate Professor of Greek Archaeology in the Department of Classical Studies at Tulane University. She holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati (2016), an M.A. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati (2010), and an M.A. from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2007). Her research focuses on the archaeology of Bronze Age Crete, particularly the Late Bronze Age (Neopalatial period), with a specialization in pottery styles and their social implications. She leads excavations at Knossos, analyzing pottery from Sir Arthur Evans’ early 20th-century excavations to understand ritual practices and architectural functions. In 2024, she will lead a student field trip through the Greek Islands organized by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Her publications include Knossos: The House of the Frescoes (2022) and South by Southeast: The History and Archaeology of Southeast Crete (2022), which explore Minoan social dynamics and regional identity. Her work highlights how pottery styles reflect communal identity and ritual behaviors. Recent research reinterprets Evans’ archival materials to reveal new insights into Knossos’ urban context and ritual spaces. Teaching courses like CLAS-2320 (Greek Religion) and CLAS-3170 (Greek Art and Archaeology), Oddo bridges academic scholarship and pedagogy. Her field projects emphasize interdisciplinary methods, such as ceramic regionalism and contextual analysis, to reconstruct Bronze Age Cretan society. She actively contributes to archaeological discourse through edited volumes and peer-reviewed articles.
Kären Wigen is the Frances and Charles Field Professor in History at Stanford University, specializing in Japanese history and the history of cartography. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley (1990). Her research spans: Historical geography of East Asia Early modern Japanese regional economies Geographies of the imagination Transnational maritime histories Critical cartography and spatial analysis Her publications include eight major works from 1992-2025 analyzing spatial transformations in Japan and global metageography, with recent projects focusing on temporal dimensions in cartographic representation. She co-edited Seascapes (2007) and Cartographic Japan (2016), and serves as Director of Stanford’s Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities since 2022.
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States
Christopher R. Knittel is the George P. Shultz Professor of Energy Economics and Professor of Applied Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management . He serves as Director of MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR), Director of the MIT Climate Policy Center, and Deputy Director for Policy at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). PhD, University of California, Berkeley (1999) M.A., University of California, Davis (1996) B.A., California State University, Stanislaus (1994) His research focuses on energy economics, environmental policy, and machine learning applications in energy systems. He leads interdisciplinary initiatives like the Climate Action Through Education program for high schools and co-directs the E2e Project with UC Berkeley and University of Chicago. Recent publications analyze data center energy dynamics, hydrogen technologies, Russian oil sanctions, and transportation policy reforms. His work emphasizes policy cost-effectiveness, emissions equity, and energy market responses to regulation.
Marcela Echeverri Muñoz is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Yale University, affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Her scholarship bridges history, anthropology, and political theory, with a focus on Latin America, the Atlantic World, and the Spanish Empire. She is recognized for her interdisciplinary approach to understanding political subjectivities, state formation, and social transformation during the Age of Revolutions. PhD in Latin American and Caribbean History, New York University, 2008 MA in History of the Hispanic World, Fundación MAPFRE-Tavera and CSIC, Madrid, 2006 MA in Social and Political Theory, The New School for Social Research, 2001 BA in Anthropology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, 1997 Her research centers on the interplay of race, gender, law, and political theory in colonial and 19th-century Latin America. She investigates how enslaved and Indigenous peoples navigated imperial and republican transitions, particularly through royalist affiliations. Her work challenges peripheral narratives of Spanish America in Atlantic slavery studies, positioning the region as a central site of abolitionist and constitutional experimentation. The trends in her recent publications reveal a sustained focus on slavery, abolition, and political transformation in the Spanish American mainland. She analyzes how anti-slavery movements were intertwined with republicanism, citizenship, and state formation, especially in Gran Colombia. Her scholarship spans legal history, Atlantic processes, and transimperial dynamics, often highlighting marginalized voices in revolutionary contexts. She frequently contributes to major reference works and edited volumes on Atlantic revolutions and Latin American independence. Her scientific awards and fellowships reflect her standing in the field: James Alexander Robertson Prize Michael Jiménez Prize Bolton-Johnson Prize Honorable Mention Yale Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship MacMillan Research Fellow, Yale Mellon Residential Fellow, CUNY NEH Summer Institute Participant, Johns Hopkins Fellowships from John Carter Brown Library, CSIC, Fundación Mapfre, and Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia Echeverri has secured significant research grants from Harvard’s Atlantic History Seminar, CUNY Research Foundation, and Yale. She has co-edited special issues on Gran Colombian history and Spanish American abolition, and led key academic initiatives including the Race and Slavery in the Atlantic World Working Group and the Early Modern Empires Workshop at Yale. Though student advising is not explicitly detailed, her role as a senior scholar implies mentorship of graduate students. She is affiliated with several research networks and has been a visiting scholar at institutions such as Freie Universität Berlin. Her ongoing book project on Gran Colombian slavery underscores her commitment to redefining the hemispheric significance of Latin American abolition. She remains an active contributor to both scholarly and pedagogical conversations in Atlantic and Latin American history.
University of California, Los AngelesUnited States
Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Distinguished Professor of History and Irving & Jean Stone Endowed Chair in Social Sciences at UCLA's Department of History. A globally recognized historian of the early modern period (15th-18th centuries), he previously held prestigious positions at the Collège de France (2013-2021), University of Oxford (2002-2004), and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1995-2002). He founded UCLA's Center for India and South Asia (2005-2011) and maintains significant academic engagement in France through media appearances and lectures. His educational background includes: M.A. in Economics (First Rank with Gold Medal), Delhi School of Economics (1982) Ph.D. in Economic History, Delhi School of Economics (1987) Honorary D.Litt., University of Calcutta (2015) Doctorat honoris causa, Université catholique de Louvain (2017) Subrahmanyam's research revolutionized global historical methodology through his pioneering concept of 'connected histories,' which challenges Eurocentric periodization and emphasizes horizontal connections across regions. His work spans South Asian political culture, Indian Ocean trade networks, Iberian imperial systems, and Mughal court dynamics, consistently integrating multilingual archives and visual sources. He demonstrates exceptional mastery in synthesizing Portuguese, Spanish, Persian, Tamil, and Sanskrit materials to reconstruct non-Western perspectives on early modern globalization. His recent publications reveal intensified focus on transcultural encounters, maritime archaeology, and the material dimensions of empire. Works like Across the Green Sea (2024) and Mirrors of Empire (2026) showcase his shift toward analyzing ego-documents and visual culture to explore identity formation in frontier zones. The consistent thread remains his critique of civilizational boundaries and emphasis on fluid cultural exchanges across the Indian Ocean world. His scientific recognition includes: Infosys Humanities Prize (2012) Dan David Prize for History (2019) Prix International de l'Histoire (2020) Fellowship in American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009) Corresponding Fellowship in British Academy (2016) Guggenheim Fellowship (2011-12) Subrahmanyam has mentored nine doctoral students to completion, maintaining active collaborations with Muzaffar Alam (University of Chicago), Velcheru Narayana Rao (University of Wisconsin), and David Shulman (Hebrew University). His editorial leadership includes co-editing The Cambridge World History (2015) and serving over a decade as Joint Managing Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review . He currently directs major international projects on Indo-Persian travel writing and Mughal intellectual networks. Though not leading a traditional laboratory, he coordinates the 'Connected Histories' research initiative across UCLA, Collège de France, and University of Chicago, fostering interdisciplinary teams examining early modern knowledge circulation. His public engagement includes regular contributions to French media (France 24, France Info) and curated exhibitions like the Codex Casanatense project.
University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States
Paolo Gardoni is the Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor and an Excellence Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with additional professorial appointments in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering and Biomedical & Translational Sciences. He also serves as Director of the MAE Center and Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety. Education Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2002) M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley (2001) M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, University of Tokyo (1997) Laurea (BS+MS equivalent) in Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (1997) Research Interests Gardoni’s scholarship integrates probabilistic methods with large-scale infrastructure systems to advance reliability, risk, and life-cycle analysis. His work quantifies the performance of deteriorating systems under natural and anthropogenic hazards, models societal impacts of disasters, and develops decision frameworks for sustainable and resilient infrastructure. He also examines ethical, social, and legal dimensions of risk, and investigates optimal strategies for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, and climate adaptation. Across more than 250 refereed journal papers, he has advanced sub-fields ranging from probabilistic mechanics and earthquake engineering to catastrophe bond pricing and engineering ethics, leveraging tools such as stochastic differential equations, Bayesian networks, and physics-informed machine learning. Awards & Honors Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure (ASCE, 2021) Best Paper Awards in ASCE Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (2019) and Geotechnical Research (2018 Telford Premium Prize) Fellowships and named professorships: Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor, Excellence Faculty Scholar, and courtesy or honorary professorships at Tsinghua, IIT Guwahati, Tongji, Jianghan, and Loughborough universities. Research Leadership & Funding Gardoni has secured over $58 million in research funding from NSF, DHS, NIST, USAID, Qatar National Research Fund, and other agencies. He directs the MAE Center—formerly an NSF Engineering Research Center—focused on multi-hazard engineering approaches, and is Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety (Elsevier, IF 9.4). He founded and formerly led the journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (Taylor & Francis) and serves on editorial boards of nine additional journals. Advising & Mentorship He has graduated 27 PhD and 35 Master’s students, many of whom now hold faculty positions worldwide. His group maintains an active pipeline of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers working on resilience analytics, infrastructure monitoring, and risk-informed decision-making. Laboratories & Collaborations He leads the MAE Center and is affiliated with the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) and the Biomedical and Translational Sciences group. International collaborations span the UK (Loughborough), India (IIT Guwahati), and China (Tsinghua, Tongji, Jianghan), fostering cross-disciplinary research in reliability and resilience engineering.
Prita Meier is an Associate Professor of Art History at New York University's College of Arts & Science , affiliated with the Department of Art History & the Institute of Fine Arts. Her work bridges African art history, Indian Ocean world studies, and global modernity frameworks. Education: Ph.D. (2007) in History of Art, Harvard University M.A. (2000) in History of Art, University of Iowa B.A. (1996) in Art History, University of Florida Research Interests focus on the visual and architectural cultures of Africa, particularly Swahili Coast port cities, exploring globalization's cultural dimensions, Islamic art, and photography histories. Her work interrogates spatial-temporal dynamics in African modernity and colonial art frameworks. Scientific Awards include CASVA Senior Fellowship, NEH Implementation Grant (with Allyson Purpura), Mellon Collaborative Grant (with Kenny Cupers), Clark Art Institute Residential Fellowship, and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship. Notably, she declined the National Humanities Center Fellowship and Stanford Humanities Fellows Program. Publications highlight Indian Ocean trade networks, Swahili Coast architecture, and photography's global circulation. Recent works (2020-2017) examine infrastructure as identity, oceanic materiality, and itinerant art historiography. Earlier articles (2016-2009) analyze porcelain trade, modernist discontents, and Swahili funerary practices. Contact: spm9@nyu.edu | 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003
Fahad Ahmad Bishara is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia , specializing in the economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic world . His work bridges global capitalism, international law, and historical narratives of mobility. Key Books: A Sea of Debt (Cambridge, 2017) and Monsoon Voyagers (UC Press, forthcoming) Awards: Hurst Prize, Jerry Bentley Prize, Peter Gonville Stein Book Award Research Focus: Explores debt, legal systems, and trade through microhistories of ships and merchant families, with recent interests in narrative scales and conceptualizations of law in global history. Academic Collaborations: Co-authored works with Nandini Chatterjee, Hollian Wint, and others, emphasizing Persianate and Indian Ocean interconnections. Scientific Awards: J. Willard Hurst Prize (Law and Society Association) Jerry Bentley Prize (World History Association) Peter Gonville Stein Book Award (American Society for Legal History)
Jun Uchida is the Asian Cultures and Society Professor and Professor of History at Stanford University, holding dual appointments in the Department of History and the Center for East Asian Studies. His research focuses on modern East Asian history, Japanese colonialism, migration, and diaspora. He has served as Director of the Center for East Asian Studies (2016-2019) and currently leads the Asian Cultures and Society program. Uchida holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has held fellowships at institutions including the Weatherhead Center for International Studies and the Social Science Research Council. His current book project traces the transpacific diasporic activities of Ōmi merchants from Shiga Prefecture, examining their roles in Japan’s imperial expansion. Key research areas include Japanese settler colonialism, colonial Korea, and transnational migration patterns. Uchida has authored influential works like Brokers of Empire (2011), which won the John K. Fairbank Prize, and has contributed to journals such as the Journal of Japanese Studies and Past & Present . Education: Ph.D. in History, Harvard University (2001) M.A. in History, University of California, Berkeley (1996) B.A. in History, Cornell University (1995) Uchida’s teaching spans modern Japanese history, colonial studies, and transpacific themes. He advises doctoral candidates and chairs graduate admissions committees. His awards include the NEH Fellowship (2019-2020) and the Stanford Pattee Fellowship (2013-2014). He maintains active roles in professional organizations such as the American Historical Association and the Association for Asian Studies.
Molly Greene is a Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University. Her work focuses on the Ottoman Empire and the Mediterranean world, with expertise in early modern Christian-Muslim interactions, maritime history, and colonial dynamics. She served on the Executive Committee of the Program in Hellenic Studies from 2011 to 2022. Her research bridges Ottoman administrative systems, ethnic communities, and religious coexistence. Affiliations: Princeton University (current), Center for Hellenic Studies (past committee role) Her research explores themes such as Ottoman governance mechanisms, the role of piracy in Mediterranean trade, and socio-economic relationships between Christian and Muslim populations. Recent work emphasizes the agency of non-state actors and marginalized groups in shaping imperial structures. Greene’s publications include seminal works like A Shared World (2002) and Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants (2010), which reframe understandings of religious and economic networks in early modern Europe. She has also published in Greek, reflecting her deep engagement with Hellenic cultural history. Teaching: Courses on the Mediterranean’s historical trajectory, Ottoman Empire studies, and early modern global connections. She advises students on topics spanning Ottoman social history, Mediterranean maritime networks, and interfaith historiography. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Greene’s interdisciplinary approach integrates archival research from multiple languages and regions, emphasizing the Mediterranean as a cohesive yet diverse space. She is a leading voice in redefining narratives of early modern empire and cross-cultural interaction.
Amitav Acharya is UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at American University's School of International Service. He holds honorary positions at Rhodes University, University of Pretoria, and Nankai University, with previous appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Tsinghua University. Research focuses on: Global international relations and world order transitions US-China relations and Asian regionalism Non-Western international relations theory United Nations and global governance Publications demonstrate extensive contributions to IR theory with works translated into multiple languages. Honors include: Three-time ISA Distinguished Scholar Award recipient American University Scholar-Teacher of the Year (2020) First non-Western President of International Studies Association (2014-2015)
