Starting in fall 2017 the Jackson School of International Studies will add five new faculty members who will bring new expertise for students, the wider UW community and general public.
“Our new colleagues, who range from Assistant to Full Professor in rank, cover many world regions with their expertise,” said Reşat Kasaba, Director of the Jackson School. “Together, they will reinforce our existing areas of strength, open new vistas for research and teaching, and secure the long term vigor of the School. We are fortunate for being able to recruit such a stellar group of colleagues.”
A powerhouse for Asian Studies
Since its founding over 100 years ago with a course on Asia and close proximity to the Pacific Rim, the Jackson School continues to distinguish itself as a leader in deep area knowledge and research of countries in Asia. With the addition of three new professors the School will secure its preeminent place as a center for Asia Studies for many years to come.
Mark Metzler is a senior historian of Modern Japan. He recently moved to Seattle from University of Texas in Austin. Dr. Metzler has written many books and articles on modern Japanese history, and world economic history. His latest book Central Banks and Gold: How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World, was published by Cornell University Press in 2016. He is currently completing an economic history of the world in the late nineteenth century. As Professor of Japanese History and International Studies, Dr. Metzler holds a joint appointment with the Department of History and the Jackson School.
Clair Yang
earned her Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Strategy from Northwestern University in 2016, and her B.S. in Mathematics from Peking University in Beijing, China. Dr. Yang has most recently been a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Her research is in the area of political economy, applied microeconomics and the Chinese economy. She joins the Jackson School as an Assistant Professor, specializing in Chinese economics.
James Lin is a historian of Taiwan, China, and the world in the 20th century. His research examines international agrarian development, beginning with rural reform and agricultural science in China and Taiwan from the early 20th century through the postwar era, then its subsequent re-imagining during Taiwanese development missions to Africa, Asia, and Latin America from the 1950s onward. James Lin is part of the Jackson School’s new Taiwan initiative, which is a joint project involving the UW, the Taiwan Government and an anonymous private donor.
Expanding Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
Liora Halperin will be moving from University of Colorado-Boulder to UW as the inaugural holder of the Rebecca and Jack Benaroya Chair in Israel Studies in the Jackson School. Professor Halperin’s appointment is part of a broader initiative to cultivate excellence in Israel Studies and made possible by a generous grant from the Benaroya family. She earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Her book, Babel in Zion: Jews, Nationalism, and Language Diversity in Palestine, 1920–1948, was published by Yale University Press in 2014. Dr. Halperin will hold a joint appointment with the Jackson School and the Department of History.
Sasha Senderovich will hold a joint appointment with the Jackson School and the UW Department of Slavic languages and Literature. Dr. Senderovich received his Ph.D. from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. He has written on Russian Jewish writers, English-language translations of Soviet Yiddish novels, contemporary Anglophone fiction by Russian Jewish émigré authors in the United States and on Soviet post-Soviet cinema.