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News
Celebrating the East Asian Studies MA class of 2025
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Spring is a season of beginnings, but it also marks an ending for students. On May 9, members of the APSI community joined students’ friends and family members to celebrate the completion of the academic year and highlight the achievements of the students who earned their MA degree or a graduate certificate in East Asian Studies.
As APSI’s director, Prasenjit Duara, noted in his opening remarks, “I have always thought this is one of the best MA programs in the country, because there’s a lot of attention to master’s students, here. Through this program, you have undergone very rigorous training that will hold you in good stead in whatever profession you decide to take on.”
Eileen Chow, director of graduate studies for APSI, thanked the faculty, staff, and family members for supporting the graduates through the trials and triumphs of their academic journeys culminating in the day's celebration.
Each of the May 2025 graduates were asked to share some of their thoughts about their experiences in the program. Highlights from their reflections, some prepared, some extemporaneous, are shared, below:
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Kenan Gu
“In late 2020, just before taking a gap year from undergrad, I was grappling with a deep sense of disorientation—uncertain of who I was, what I believed in, or where I was headed. It was a dark time, both personally and globally, as the chaos of COVID-19 shattered any linear sense of how life was supposed to unfold. By early 2023, as the pandemic began to recede, I chose to come to Duke—drawn not only by the program, but by a desire to step away from the noise of mega-city life. I still remember landing at RDU on that humid summer day, watching the trees and interstates rush by, and wondering quietly: Am I really ready for this? The academic path, the solitude of a small town, the unknowns ahead? Now, as I graduate, the world once again feels uncertain, but something has changed. I've come to love the quiet—the trees, the lakes, the slower rhythm of this place. And more than that, I've had a sense of clarity in purpose and confidence in my path ahead. Yet what sustains me most is the community I've built here—among mentors, peers, and friends at EAS and beyond. Through them, I’ve come to realize that the best way to live with uncertainty is to lean into what is certain: the kindness, care, and intelligence that surround us. And with that, I believe—we will persevere, together.”
In Fall 2025, Kenan Gu will be matriculating to the University of California, Irvine, as a PhD student in cultural anthropology.
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Chenyi Huang
“As a student, I feel so lucky. Just like each of you, I've experienced my share of up and downs in this program—moments of frustration, loneliness, and sadness—but the journey is also filled with moments of joy, enlightenment and laughter. We all have our beautiful moments. No matter if it's conversations in class or out of class or just the daily sweet, goofy moments that we share together, I will keep that in my memory and I will cherish those memories forever. So thank you, my cohort. Also, I'd like to express gratitude to my committee my advisor, Professor Eileen Chow and Professor Carlos Rojas and other professors in my classes or who I just encounterd in other occasions. There are so many sparkling inspirations from all of you. I really gained so much from my time with Duke—all the books that I read, a lot of sleepless nights, all the discussions in class or out of class. I will continue the intellectual journey with all the knowledge, all the methodology that I gained in this program. For example, this program has taught me to always historicize, to always critically examine our positionality, to constantly contextualize and to question the assumptions that shaped our understanding, to be aware of the power relations behind the scenes. Those are all things that I learned from this program and I will keep that with me. These are all very valuable.”
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Hechen Liu
“I'm really glad that I would be able to be here. I wanted to thank my grandmother first of all because this work is really a commemoration of her passing away, trying to help me understand a little bit about her background, her history. You know, what kind of historical traumas she has suffered under different kind of historical conditions especially in the 1930s and 1940s, and I'm really glad that I have such creative and and inspiring and knowledgeable committee members, including Professor Ralph Litzinger, Duara and then Engseng Ho, who taught me a lot about space and time theory, and then Christine Folch, a lot of knowledge about equal history as well. I want to especially especially especially extend my gratitude to the the staff at our Duke Library who have been working so hard, helping us to understand and navigate the library system throughout the U.S. domestically or internationally. I have been heavily supported by Matthew Hayes at the at the library who, you know, wrote the introduction letters to archives and libraries so that I was able to actually travel to rural area and Sitemap prefecture in Japan and to know a bunch of what, 80 years old people and who've been keeping all those really important Sino-Japan relation archives in the countryside. I'm really glad that I would be able to visit them because of Matthew's support. I'm really glad that we have such a sweet cohort team and all those friends right here. I'm also very glad for the language teaching team in AMES, especially Yunchuan sensei and Kurokawa sensei as well. I'm really glad and happy to meet all of you here today. And lastly, I want to thank Jieun Cho for all the inspirational work and and her courses, Asian Anthropocene and Critical Animal Studies. My research matured throughout the process, all because of the theories and knowledge I learned from Jieun's course.”
In Fall 2025, Hechen will begin his PhD studies in cultural anthropology at the City University of New York.
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Zoey Liu
“It’s been an honor and pleasure to study at Duke and be a member of the EAS cohort. I’m lucky enough to have had the privilege of fully exploring my research interests during my time here, and managed to culminate a thesis on the topic that is so deeply and so truly related to and rooted in my previous experiences both personally and academically. I would like to again express my gratitude to my thesis advisor Professor Eileen Chow, and of course to my committee members, Professor Carlos Rojas and Professor Gennifer Weisenfeld. I’m really grateful to all of our amazing staff, including the wonderful librarians, for your support. I also want to say thank you to my amazing cohort. Thank you so much for being so supportive and so inspiring all the time. The regalia I'm wearing today is not mine. It's borrowed, because I didn't plan to buy this; commencement ceremonies are really not a thing for me. But I ended up borrowing this after deciding to give myself a good end for this journey. Also, my shoes: they're actually from my previous roommate’s closet. She passed away last November during the Thanksgiving holidays. My outfit today is kind of like a metaphor for my life here. I'm being supported and helped by my peers, by my friends who are already my family, and I'm really, really thrilled and really, really privileged to celebrate this moment with you all. I wish everyone the best in the future, whether you are continuing your academic exploration or going somewhere else.”
This summer, Zoey heads to Tokyo to begin working for Sega.
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Artemis Qi
Firstly, I really want to thank everyone, my cohort here and my friends, and also my committee members, Eileen and Gennifer and Simon—they really helped me a lot. I never thought would be emotional, but, somehow I am. When I first came to the U.S., I never thought I would go to a graduate program. I don't like studying, actually. If I ever thought about like going to grad school, I probably would go to business school for an MBA. Actually, somehow I continued my creative writing here and East Asian Studies. It helps me a lot, in every way, and I will always cherish what I learned here. Friends, our cohort is our chosen family. I have my friends here, my professors here, my community here and everyone's here. I want to say thank you to everyone. It's been a privilege and it's a very good time.”
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Ziqi Wan
“I really want to thank Eileen—I'm glad to have you be our instructor and director [of graduate studies]. It's very, very good to have you here for us and for Duke. It's a happy thing. I want to thank Melanie, my director and advisor for her help on my research topic, the White Paper protests, and the questions I brought here when I came to Duke, guiding me to find my own answer. Maybe it's not right, but it's mine, so I want to thank you for being so energetic and positive. Any time I felt lost on the path, you just dragged me back and told me to go on. You became my life model; I want to be a person like you to affect others to become better. I also want to thank my family, my peers, my friends who could not be here. We spent a lot of time on this journey and made so many memories I will never forget.”
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David Zong
“It is truly an honor to stand here today and share a few words as we mark the completion of our Master's degrees. To me, looking back, this has been more than just a period of academic growth. It has been a time of challenge, discovery and deep connection. I have faced the pressure of coursework, the frustration of doing IRB, reading articles, and the ups and downs of thesis writing. Yet, through all of this, I have grown stronger, more resilient, and more prepared for the world ahead. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the faculty members who are here, and absolutely to my idol, Professor Anne Allison. Their guidance and encouragement have shaped me a lot. Also thanks to my cohorts and friends whose whose support have made this journey meaningful and memorable. Congratulations to each and everyone of you. I wish you all the very best in the journey ahead.”