Doreen Lee

Doreen Lee serves as Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Global Asian Studies Program within Northeastern University's College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Her research interrogates the intersections of urban life, political power, and archival practices in Indonesia, with particular focus on Jakarta's financial landscapes and grassroots resistance movements.

Her academic foundation includes a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Cornell University (2008), establishing her interdisciplinary approach bridging History, Southeast Asian Studies, and Anthropology.

Lee's scholarship centers on:

• Urban Politics: Analyzing how megacity environments shape political subjectivity and resistance
• Archival Activism: Documenting how marginalized communities produce counter-histories
• Financial Anthropology: Examining survival techniques in contexts of extreme inequality
• Youth Movements: Tracing nationalist legacies in contemporary political mobilization

Her work consistently positions Southeast Asia as vital theoretical terrain for global anthropological discourse.

Recent publications reveal intensifying focus on financial predation in Asian megacities, information politics in authoritarian contexts, and the materiality of dissent. Her research demonstrates methodological innovation through ethnographic engagement with urban ruins, financial scams, and digital resistance.

Lee's scholarly impact is recognized through her award-winning monograph Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia (Duke University Press, 2016), which established foundational frameworks for understanding intergenerational political memory.

As Director of Global Asian Studies, she cultivates interdisciplinary programming while maintaining active affiliations with the Society for Cultural Anthropology, Association for Asian Studies (Indonesia and Timor Leste Studies Committee), and Association of American Anthropology. Her collaborative work engages with colleagues across Sociology, Health Sciences, and Environmental Research at Northeastern.