Graduate Students

Guttorm Gundersen

gundersen@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in Religion/Philosophy

Guttorm Norberg Gundersen received his MPhil in East Asian Culture and History from the University of Oslo in his native country of Norway in 2017, where he wrote about Māra in Tiantai Zhiyi’s instructions on meditation. He is interested in traditions of...

Kwan Woo Hahn

khahn@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in HEAL/Korea

Kwan Woo Hahn received his B.A. from Yonsei University and A.M. in Regional Studies-East Asia from Harvard University. The topic of his master’s thesis was the Korean authoritarian regime’s use of criminal organizations to quell the dissident voices...

Ben Hales

bhales@fas.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in HEAL/China

Ben Hales entered Harvard’s History and East Asian Languages (HEAL) program in 2024. He researches the modern history of China’s relationship with Central Asia, focussing in particular on settler-indigenous and sedentary-pastoral relations from the 1940s...

Sujin Elisa Han

han@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in HEAL/Korea

Sujin Elisa Han is a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Languages. She is currently working on her dissertation, which traces the history of the pharmaceutical market in South Korea to examine changing conceptions and aesthetics of health. Sujin has...

Henry Jacobs

hjacobs@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy

Henry Jacobs received his BA and MSt in Chinese Studies from The University of Oxford, where his work focused on Early and Early Medieval text cultures and knowledge production. His doctoral research broadly concerns the reconstruction of Early Chinese...

Kaia Johnson

kaiajohnson@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in Chinese Literature

Kaia Johnson's research focuses on gender and sexuality in Ming & Qing dynasty literature. Before coming to Harvard, she studied Chinese Language and Culture as well as Psychology at U.C. Berkeley, before earning her M.A. in Chinese literature at Stanford...

William Julian

williamjulian@fas.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in HEAL/China

William Julian’s work concerns the changes in perceptions and portrayals of the northwest ( 西北) during the Republican Period. He seeks to locate these sources not only within broader Chinese discourses on borderlands, but also within their global context...

Leah Justin-Jinich

ljustinjinich@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in Japanese Art History

After obtaining a Master’s degree in Japanese literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Leah Justin-Jinich entered the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations as a PhD student at Harvard University in 2016. Her dissertation explores...

Jonah Katz

jonahkatz@fas.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in Chinese Literature

Jonah Katz is a student of late imperial Chinese literature. He received his M.A. in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University and an Honors B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Utah. His current research focuses on the history of the...

Shae (Chae Lin) Kim

shaekim@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Student in Korean Literature

Shae (Chae Lin) Kim received her B.A. in Asian Studies and a Master's degree in Korean literature from Yonsei University. In her master's thesis, she examined a 17th-century poetry book created for a courtesan, known as the Poetry Book for Chosaeng...

Gene Kim

genekim@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D Candidate in HEAL/Japan and Korea

Gene Kim is a Ph.D. student in History and East Asian Languages. His research focuses on the political, social, and oceanic history of Japan's post-1945 relations with the two Koreas. His research interests also include Korean and Japanese interactions...

Mari Kishi

marikishi@g.harvard.edu

Ph.D. Candidate in East Asian Arts/Film/Cultural Studies

Mari Kishi is a queer film and media scholar from Japan. They received their BA in Law from Kyoto University and their MA in Film and Media Studies from New Sorbonne University (Paris 3), where they wrote their thesis on the star persona of Japanese...