Michael Szonyi

Michael Szonyi is Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History at Harvard University. He is a social historian of late imperial and modern China who studies local society in southeast China using a combination of traditional textual sources and ethnographic-style fieldwork. He has written, translated or edited seven books, including The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China (2017); A Companion to Chinese History (2017), Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line (2008; Chinese edition 2016) and Practicing Kinship (2002). He is also co-editor, with Jennifer Rudolph, of The China Questions: Critical Insights on a Rising Power (2018). A frequent commentator on Chinese affairs, Szonyi is a Fellow of the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China relations. He recently completed a term as member of the China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and served for many years as English-language editor for the journal of Historical Anthropology. Szonyi received his BA from the University of Toronto and his D.Phil from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has also studied at National Taiwan University and Xiamen University. Prior to coming to Harvard in 2005, Prof. Szonyi taught at McGill University and University of Toronto.

Kidder Smith

For many years Kidder Smith taught Chinese history at Bowdoin College, where he also directed the Asian Studies program.  He is senior author of Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching (Princeton, 1991), Sun Tzu–the Art of War (Shambhala, 2001), Having Once Paused–poetry of Zen Master Ikkyu (University of Michigan, 2015), Li Bo Unkempt (Punctum, 2020), and Abruptly Dogen (Punctum, 2022).

Pauline Chen: 

Pauline Chen (Dallas) serves as V.P. Finance of DFW Technology; an ISO9001-2015 certified Information Technology and Telecommunication Service provider.  Pauline has a great passion for community services, her active participation and leadership with organizations from a variety of segments – Business, Arts, Religious and Social Services – is a great example that impact can multiply when volunteerism crosses borders, building connections, collaboration and relationships amongst organizations from different areas. Currently, she serves as a Deputy Director of Buddha Light International Association and the Honorary President of Global Federation Chinese Business Women association, North Texas Chapter.