Cathryn H. Clayton

Dr. Cathryn H. Clayton serves as Chair of the Asian Studies Department and Associate Professor at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, where her research investigates the construction of Chineseness as a collective subjectivity through historical and spatial dynamics of sovereignty, imperialism, nationalism, transnationalism, blood ties, and collective memory, with primary focus on 20th-century China and global Chinese communities.

Her academic training includes:

• B.A. in Anthropology from Williams College (1988)
• M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University (1992)
• Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2001)

Professor Clayton's scholarship examines how sovereignty frameworks shaped Chineseness in Macau during its 1999 Portuguese-to-Chinese transition, as detailed in her monograph, alongside publications on Macau's Cultural Revolution experiences and the social categorization of hunxue'er (mestizos) across Greater China. She actively contributes to Chinese-English translation while analyzing transnational identity formation through imperial legacies, diasporic networks, and civilizational narratives.