Kornel ChangView profile
Professor
Kornel Chang is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Rutgers University-Newark, specializing in U.S. immigration and foreign relations with a focus on U.S.-East Asian dynamics. His scholarship examines transnational borderlands, decolonization processes, and the intersections of race, labor, and empire, particularly in Korean and Pacific contexts. Recent work centers on U.S. occupation in Korea and enduring Cold War legacies on the peninsula. His educational background includes: Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Chang's research bridges U.S. immigration history, Asian American studies, and diplomatic history through a transnational lens. He investigates how U.S. interventions shaped decolonization in Korea, racial formations in border regions, and labor activism across the Pacific world. Current projects analyze the persistent Cold War framework in U.S.-North Korean relations and why peace remains elusive on the Korean Peninsula. Publication trends reveal consistent engagement with marginalized perspectives in borderland histories, evolving from early work on U.S.-Canada boundary formation to recent scholarship on Korea. His work consistently links race, gender, and labor to imperial power structures across the Americas and Asia, demonstrating methodological innovation in transnational historical analysis. His accolades include: Longlisted for the 2025 Cundill History Prize Named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2025 Association of Asian American Studies Book Prize winner (2014) Binkley-Stephenson Award winner (2021) ACLS Charles Ryscamp Fellowship recipient (2014-2015) Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant co-investigator ($225,000, 2020-2021) Chang has secured significant research funding including the Mellon Foundation grant for the Sawyer Seminar on urban migration dynamics, alongside prestigious fellowships from Harvard, Yale, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. While specific advisees aren't documented here, his departmental leadership and active research agenda indicate substantial graduate mentorship across history and American studies programs.













