Selina Lai-Henderson

My research and teaching are at the heart of transnational American Studies and literary history. My major intellectual theme revolves around locating works of American literature in twentieth-century China and in translation. I am the author of Mark Twain in China (Stanford UP, 2015), and have published in PMLA (forthcoming, 2023) and MELUS, among other places. I am currently Chair of the International Committee at the American Studies Association, and I co-direct Freedom Lab at DKU. I am on the Editorial Board of Global Nineteenth Century Studies, and I am a Senior Associate Managing Editor of the Journal of Transnational American Studies.

Current Research Interests

My second monograph in progress, “You Are No Darker Than I Am:” Afro-Asian Encounters and the Afro-Asian Imaginary stems from the desire to contribute to the burgeoning field of Afro-Asian Studies that illuminates the crossings of pan-Africanism, transnational American Studies, and East Asian Studies. The monograph fills a critical lacuna by probing the complex shifts of Afro-Asian discourses from late Qing through the early Maoist era, and the ways in which “blackness” travels across the literary and cultural landscape in these conflicting historical junctures. Delving into different articulations of an internationalist vision, the monograph activates concepts of race and the nation-state as vehicles of inter-cultural dialogue in the hope of transnational solidarity despite its challenges. It allows for the complex landscape of Afro-Asian engagements to unfold with unexpected insight.

Academic Positions

• Feb 2018 – Assistant Professor of American Literature & History Duke Kunshan University
• Jul 2020 – Assistant Professor of the Practice, Global Studies Duke University
• 2014-2017 Research Assistant Professor of American Studies, The University of Hong Kong
• 2013-2014 Lecturer, American Studies, The University of Hong Kong
• 2011-2012 Research Assistant, English Department, Stanford University
• 2008-2012 Research Assistant, American Studies, The University of Hong Kong
• 2007-2008 Lecturer, American Studies, The University of Hong Kong
• 2004-2005 Teaching Assistant, American Studies, The University of Hong Kong

Current Professional Titles

• Chair, International Committee, American Studies Association, 2022 –
• Senior Associate Managing Editor, Journal of Transnational American Studies.
• Advisory Board. Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. Liverpool University Press.
• Co-Director, Freedom Lab. Humanities Research Center, DKU and Duke University.
• Advisory Board. Humanities Research Center, DKU and Duke University.
• Core Affiliate. Center for the Study of Contemporary China, DKU and Duke
  University.

Education

• The University of Hong Kong Ph.D. in American Studies, 2008-2013
• Stanford University, Palo Alto Fulbright Scholar, 2011-2012
• Heidelberg University, Germany M.A. in American Studies, 2005-2006
• The University of Hong Kong B.A. in English and Comparative Literature, 1999-2002