Catherine Tsai is a PhD candidate in the program of History and East Asian Languages. Her research focuses on how the movements of Taiwanese labor and goods created the economic and environmental landscape of the Yaeyama Islands from the 1920s to the 1970s as well as how the migrations across the ocean facilitated acts of local border-making and identity formation distinct from the national boundaries and citizenship status conceived by the Japanese imperial and then the American military governments. Her broader research interests lie in transnational approaches to the study of East Asia, particularly as they apply to issues of empire and colonialism, migration and nationality, and militarization. She received a BA from the University of California, Davis in 2014, majoring in history and international relations.