Faculty and Staff

Staff

Lei Guang, Ph.D.
Director and Professor of Political Science
Undergraduate and Graduate Adviser
(619) 594-4428
Office: AL 473A
lguang@mail.sdsu.edu

Maren Castañeda
Administrative Support Coordinator
(619) 594-0931
Office: AL 473
mcastane@mail.sdsu.edu

Julie Su
Asian Studies Librarian & Head of Serials, Digital Resources/Serials
(619) 594-0904
Office: Love Library 115D
jsu@mail.sdsu.edu

Faculty

Anthropology

Erin Riley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Asian primates, primate ecology & conservation, Indonesia, China, human ecology of Southeast Asia
(619) 594-8628
Office: AL 457
epriley@mail.sdsu.edu

Art History

Hiroko Johnson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Asian art and art history; Japanese woodblock printing technique
(619) 594-0436
Office: ART S 555
hjohnson@mail.sdsu.edu

Asian & Pacific Studies

Ofelia V. Dirige, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Interests: Asian American communities, US Filipino community, public health
(619) 594-8269
Office: AL 467
odirige@msn.com

David Larom, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Interests: Southeast Asian environmental security; local and Asian sustainability issues; food justice, food security, permaculture and ecoagriculture; water conservation and rural development
(619) 594-2052
Office: AL 465
dlarom@mail.sdsu.edu

Todd Myers, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Interests: Asian state and society, Asian cultures
(619) 594-2052
Office: AL 465
Todd.Myers@gcccd.edu

Harrod Suarez, M.A.
Lecturer
Interests: Transnationalism and globalization; race, gender, and sexuality; Filipina/o and Asian American studies; literary and cultural studies
(619) 594-8269
Office: AL 467
hsuarez@mail.sdsu.edu

English and Comparative Literature

Marilyn Chin, MFA
Professor
(619) 594-6256
Office: AL 261
chin2@mail.sdsu.edu

Geography

An Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Landscape ecology, complex systems, spatial analysis, population and environmental issues in China
(619) 594-5932
Office: SH 315
lan@mail.sdsu.edu

Ming-Hsiang Tsou, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(619) 594-0205
Office: SH 236
mtsou@mail.sdsu.edu

Graduate School of Public Health

Elena Yu, Ph.D.
Professor
(619) 594-2711
Office: PSFA 148
eyusdsu@yahoo.com

History

Andrew Abalahin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
(619) 594-6999
Office: AL 515
abalahin@mail.sdsu.edu

Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Late Imperial and Modern Chinese History, Famine Studies, Gender and Sexuality, China in World History, Cultural Responses to Disaster, Modern Sino-Japanese and Sino-American relations, Western Images of Asia, Trauma and Memory studies.
(619) 594-6985
Office: AL 538
Edgerton@mail.sdsu.edu

Journalism and Media Studies

Mei Zhong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Study Abroad Coordinator for CSL
Interests: Intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication, Chinese culture, media uses
(619) 594-8099
Office: PSFA 336
mzhong@mail.sdsu.edu

Linguistic and Middle Eastern/Asian Languages

Ruey-Jiuan Regina Wu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Interpersonal communication in Chinese societies, conversation analysis, discourse pragmatics, teacher-training and language pedagogy, language assessment
(619) 594-2735
Office: EBA 320
rwu@mail.sdsu.edu

Kelly Hansen
Assistant Professor
Interests: Language discourse in early modern and modern Japanese literature. New media forms and shifting writing conventions in contemporary Japanese. Japanese and Asian film film.
(619) 594-8820
Office: EBA 330
khansen@mail.sdsu.edu

Ryu Kitajima, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Second language acquisition
(619) 594-5524
Office: EBA 322
rkitajima@mail.sdsu.edu

Soonja Choi, Ph.D.
Professor
(619) 594-5885
Office: EBA327
schoi@mail.sdsu.edu

Yoshiko Higurashi, Ph.D.
Professor
Interests: Japanese linguistics, pedagogy, intercultural communication
(619) 594-1005
Office: EBA 323
yhigurashi@mail.sdsu.edu

Zhengsheng Zhang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Chinese linguistic and language pedagogy, technology for language teaching
(619) 594-1912
Office: EBA 326
zzhang@mail.sdsu.edu

Philosophy

Sandra A. Wawrytko, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: Research and Publications on Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism
(619) 594-5455
Office: AL428
swawryt1@san.rr.com
wawrytko@charleswei-hsunfufoundation.org

Political Science

Lei Guang, Ph.D.
Professor
Interests: Chinese politics, development studies, globalization, Pacific Rim international relations
(619) 594-4942
Office: Nasatir 106
lguang@mail.sdsu.edu

Dipak Gupta, Ph.D.
Professor
Interests: Ethnic conflict, terrorism, public policy analysis
(619) 594-4067
Office: NH 121
dgupta@mail.sdsu.edu

Latha Varadarajan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(619) 594-3255
Office: NH 110
lvaradan@mail.sdsu.edu

Religious Studies

Will Hansen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Interests: East Asian religion
(619) 594-6956
Office: AL 668
whansen2@mail.sdsu.edu

Sthaneshwar Timalsina, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(619) 594-6650
Office:AL 638
timalsin@mail.sdsu.edu

School of Social Work

Yawen Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Interests: Health disparities and inequality in healthcare access, sociocultural and environmental determinants of health and health-seeking behaviors over the life course
(619) 594-4854
Office: HH 103
yli@mail.sdsu.edu

School of Teacher Education

Valerie Ooka Pang, Ph.D.
Professor
Interests: Asian Pacific American Education, Urban Education, and Cultural Diversity Issues
(619) 594-6286
Office: NE 092
pang@mail.sdsu.edu

Sociology

Ruth X. Liu, Ph.D.
Professor
(619) 594-6995
Office: NH 210
rliu@mail.sdsu.edu

Women Studies

Anh Hua, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Interest: Critical race feminism, diaspora & cultural studies; aesthetic works by Asian diaspora and black diaspora women; narratives of identity, migration home and belonging
(619) 594-7146
Office: AL 313
ahua@mail.sdsu.edu

Huma Ghosh, Ph.D.
Professor
(619) 594-3046
Office: AL 315
ghosh@mail.sdsu.edu

Adjunct Faculty

Lilly Cheng, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, School of Speech, Language and Hearing Science
Managing Director, Confucius Institute
(619) 594-4793
Office: AL 172
lcheng@mail.sdsu.edu

M. C. Madhavan, Ph.D
Professor Emeritus, Asian Studies and Economics
madhavan@mail.sdsu.edu

Allen Wittenborn, Ph.D.
awitten@mail.sdsu.edu