RSEA Newsletters
Winter 2025-2026
Letter from the Chair
Dear Alumni of the RSEA Program,
From everyone on the RSEA team, we hope you had a peaceful transition to 2026.
2025 was an eventful year – for the United States and worldwide, but also very much so for Harvard, and of course for the students in the RSEA program. But amid funding cuts, lawsuits, and visa anxiety, I have been continually impressed by our students and their even-keeled response. While (inevitably) paying attention, they continually showed a sense of purpose and an uncompromising focus on learning.
The support RSEA received from alumni was equally heartening. Many messages reached us throughout the year, offering their help. An amazing alumni panel event in October that featured Jack Chi-Yuan Hou (RSEA ‘09, COO of Universal Cement Corporation), Michael Forsythe (RSEA ‘99, Polk Award-winning journalist), and Tae Yang Kwak (RSEA ‘99, Professor of East Asian History at Ramapo College of New Jersey) brought many members of the RSEA community in the Northeast together.
At the end of the year, we received a welcome number of donations in support of the program’s vital mission at this time of budget cuts and the phasing out of scholarships. For that support, the program is profoundly grateful.
So, we head into the new year heartened and encouraged. Above all, we would like to stay in touch with you. Please let us know when you are in Boston and drop by the program office to get to know the current students and the RSEA team. Let us know when you are up to interesting things – we would love to help spread the word.
We hope to see you in 2026!
With all best wishes,
Alexander Zahlten, Chair
Notes of note
Congratulations to our November 2025 Graduates – Houyi He and Jingyi Yuan! And to the soon to be February 2026 Graduate—Yuehan Yin!
Houyi He
When Bytes Dance with Bureaucracy: The Interwoven Development of Databases and Statecraft in Late Twentieth Century China
Thesis Advisor: Arunabh Ghosh
Jingyi Yuan
Integrated Ritual Landscapes of Life Liberation: Iwashimizu Hōjōe and its Topographical Imaginations in Early Modern Japan
Thesis Advisor: Ryuichi Abe
Yuehan Yin
“Western Methods as Huihui Methods”: Reframing “East” and “West” in
the Transformation of Early Qing Astronomical Knowledge System
Thesis Advisor: Mark Elliott
Alumni Updates
In Memoriam
With a heavy heart, we share the news that Laurence Coderre (AB ‘2007, AM’ 2009), Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at New York University, passed away on January 8, 2026, in Binghamton, NY. Additional information may be found here: https://www.demunn.com/obituaries/laurence-smith-coderre.
Ouyang Bin (AM’12) Remembering Roderick MacFarquhar
https://open.substack.com/pub/binonthebank/p/remembering-roderick-macfarquhar?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Mable Chan (AM’93) and Michael Forsythe (AM’99) article
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/nyregion/china-consulate-new-york-elections.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g08.FQ0R.nYpR0YtrpHCP&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Esse Yao Chen (AM’20) was promoted to Vice President - Private Financing Solutions at BlackRock.
Huiyi Chen (AM’13) Tried and won the largest civil jury verdict in Michigan history.
Claire Cooper (AM’13) is an assistant prof at Eastern Kentucky University. https://www.eku.edu/personnel/claire-cooper/
Eyck Freymann (AM’18) and Harry Halem co-authored The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices (Hoover Institution Press). Eyck has also joined both the IOG Economic Security Group (Tokyo) and the Center on Global Energy Policy (Columbia University) as a Non-Resident Fellow.
JT Keller (AM’18) has been promoted to the position of Associate at Utile.
Adam Frost (nee' Mitchell) (AM’15, PhD’22) has joined the Society of Fellows at the Danish Institute for Advanced Study in Denmark.
Anka Lee (AM’2007) a Distinguished Fellow of The Wilson Center where his recent article Insights on US National Security Strategy: Perspectives from National Security and China Expert Anka Lee was published. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/insights-us-national-security-strategy-perspectives-national-security-and-china-expert-anka
Janet Louie (AM’18, Phd’26)’s transnational work is reflected in her recent article “The Sing Lee Theatre Collection: From Chinatown to UCLA” (https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/blog/sing-lee-theatre-collection-from-chinatown-to-ucla), and her co-curated an ongoing film series “Echoes From Spring Street: The World of Sing Lee and Chinese-Language Cinema in L.A.” (https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/series/echoes-from-spring-street-the-world-of-sing-lee-and-chinese-language-cinema-in-l-a/ ) which can be seen at the UCLA Billy Wilder Theater through March 22, 2026
Maryellen Toman Mori (AM’79, PhD ‘88) translated “A Genius for Self-Renewal: The Early Life and Literature of Tamura Toshiko (1884-1945)” (The Edwin Mellen Press, 2024). mellenpress.com
Florin-Stefan Morar (AM’13 Phd’19) published a new book Connected Cartographies: World Geography and the Sino-Western Translation of Knowledge, 1560-1842 (Cambridge University Press).
Jonas Rüegg (AM ‘16, PhD‘22) Senior Researcher, History Department, University of Zurich. The Kuroshio Frontier: Empire and Environment in the Making of Japan’s Pacific has been published today and is now available from Cambridge University Press.
Shaun Ti (AM ‘16)’s gaming/character IP company, GRUUW, had an exhibit at the 2025 Tokyo Game Show.
Rebecca Victor (AM’17) is beginning a a new position as Citywide Special Events Coordinator at NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
Yasushi Watanabe (AM’92, PhD’97)
Professor, Graduate School of Media and Sciences and Faculty of Environment and Information, Keio University, Japan, has been elected to be an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Jason Jia-Xi Wu (AM’20) has begun a new position as a Judicial Law Clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.
Amy Zhang (AM’19, PhD’2026) in January is beginning a two-year postdoc at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) as a Research Associate.
Send us your news and updates!
We enjoy hearing from alumni and welcome your news—professional and personal—via email to rsea2@fas.harvard.edu.