I am an Associate Professor of Asian Economic History at Hitotsubashi University. My research focuses on modern rural China, agricultural developments like land reform and collectivization, and social changes like communist revolution.
I was born and raised in a small town in southeast Michigan, received my B.A. (Asian Studies, minor in General Physics) and M.A. (Chinese Studies) from the University of Michigan, and then my Ph.D. (Humanities/Chinese History) from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before moving to Hitotsubashi I spent four years teaching at the University of Iowa and two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Center for Chinese Social History at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.
While a student at the U of M I lived in a vegetarian student cooperative, where I was in charge of food and supply purchasing, and networked with farmers at the local market. After finishing my M.A. I joined World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and spent a year working on farms and learning Japanese in rural Japan. I have also lived and worked on farms in Northeast China, Hong Kong and the U.S.
More about me:
Hitotsubashi Faculty Profile
researchmap Page (Japan NII researcher database)
Lee-Campbell Group Profile (in Chinese)