Having lived with her grandparents for most of her youth, Ellen grew up listening to stories about their life in Guangzhou, China before moving to New York City. Listening to her family members recount their memories of a childhood from a different era sparked her initial curiosity towards learning about history, an interest that has not faded through the years.
Ellen graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in History and Geography. Topics in human geography have greatly shaped her historical research, especially surrounding issues of migration and global inequality. Throughout her undergraduate studies, Ellen has explored a broad range of issues concerning gendered experiences of mobility, colonialism, and modernization. Regionally, her research is centered around East Asia, and Ellen is particularly interested in exploring the histories of the Chinese diaspora in the area. Ellen is looking forward to deepening her research on the diffusion of ideas and media across borders during her time in Columbia and LSE.
As a New York native, a younger Ellen spent much of her time in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, where she ate lots of dim sum, begrudgingly attended Chinese language classes, and lingered at the streetcorners where old men played their erhu.
