Duke Kunshan University has recognized a group of faculty members who received tenure, promotions or both, honoring their contributions to research, teaching and service.
The faculty members recognized are Titas Chakraborty, associate professor of history; Nellie Chu, associate professor of cultural anthropology; Paolo Epifani, professor of economics; Kolleen Guy, professor of history; Georg May, associate professor of mathematics; Lincoln Rathnam, associate professor of political science; Yu Wang, associate professor of sociology; Shixin Xu, associate professor of mathematics; and Xiaoqian Xu, associate professor of mathematics.
“These promotions and tenure appointments recognize outstanding accomplishments by our faculty in scholarship, teaching and service,” said Scott MacEachern, vice chancellor for academic affairs. “They also reflect the growing strength of DKU’s faculty and our commitment to building a globally engaged university. We are very proud of our colleagues and the contributions they make to our students, our academic community and their academic fields of expertise.”
Titas Chakraborty, associate professor of history
Historian Titas Chakraborty’s scholarship sheds new light on how colonial modernity eclipsed early modernity in spheres of work, migration, and gender. Her recent book, “Empire of Labor: Hired Workers, Mobility and the Rise of the East India Company State in Bengal, 1650–1817 ”(University of California Press, 2025), examines transformations in hired work through the experiences of European sailors and soldiers, Indigenous silk reelers and boatmen.
She studies the centrality of colonialism in shaping the history of capitalism and how that history weighs on communities today. She teaches interdisciplinary courses at DKU on migration, world history and Indian history.
Her research has also explored slavery, the slave trade and slave resistance in East India Company settlements, with work appearing in Slavery & Abolition, International Review of Social History and the Journal of Social History. She also co-edited “A Global History of Runaways” (University of California Press, 2019).
Chakraborty received her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin from 2017 to 2018.
Nellie Chu, associate professor of cultural anthropology
Nellie Chu’s research examines the lives and business practices of migrant entrepreneurs operating within China’s fast-fashion industry, offering new perspectives on globalization, labor and transnational capitalism. Her book, “Precarious Accumulation: Fast Fashion Bosses in Transnational Guangzhou” (Duke University Press, 2026), draws on extensive ethnographic research to explore these evolving economic networks.
Her teaching interests include transnational capitalism, migration, gendered labor, fashion and commodity culture.
Her work has appeared in leading academic journals, including Cultural Anthropology, Positions: Asia Critique, Modern Asian Studies, Culture, Theory and Critique and the Journal of Modern Craft. She served on the editorial board of Cultural Anthropology from 2022 to 2025.
Paolo Epifani, professor of economics
Paolo Epifani is an internationally recognized economist whose work explores how global trade shapes migration, inequality and economic development. Using general equilibrium trade models, his research examines major macroeconomic challenges, including global imbalances, economic geography and the welfare effects of globalization.
His research has been published in leading economics journals, including the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal and the Journal of International Economics. His teaching interests at DKU include international trade, political economy, microeconomics, macroeconomics and mathematical economics.
Epifani holds degrees in economics from Bocconi University and Marche Polytechnic University in Italy. Before joining DKU, he held faculty positions at the University of Nottingham, Bocconi University and the University of Parma.
Kolleen Guy, professor of history
Kolleen M. Guy’s research traces the movement of people, ideas and cultural practices across borders, illuminating how identities and communities are formed in an interconnected world. Her scholarship spans global food history, wine studies, human rights and statelessness.
She is co-editor of “Statelessness after Arendt: European Refugees in China and the Pacific in the Second World War” (2025). She is also the author of the award-winning book “When Champagne Became French”, which established her early contributions to food and identity studies. Her current work examines how food, place, cultural practices and moral concepts shape memory, identity and global interconnection.
Guy teaches widely in transnational history, including courses on refugees and statelessness, historical methods, global food systems and the cultural representation of war. Before joining DKU, she served for more than two decades on the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she held the Ricardo Romo Distinguished Professorship in the Honors College.
Georg May, associate professor of mathematics
Applied mathematician Georg May develops advanced computational methods to solve complex scientific and engineering problems. His work on numerical methods for partial differential equations has applications ranging from fluid dynamics to shape optimization and high-speed flows.
May has published in international journals including the Journal of Computational Physics, Computers & Fluids, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis and the Journal of Scientific Computing. He also co-authored “Anisotropic hp-Mesh Adaptation Methods” (Birkhäuser, 2022).
May holds degrees in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College and RWTH Aachen University in Germany, and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. Before joining DKU, he was an associate professor at RWTH Aachen University and a faculty member at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium.
Lincoln Rathnam, associate professor of political science
Lincoln Rathnam’s scholarship bridges Western and Chinese political thought, examining questions of conflict, coexistence and the common good. His recent book, “The Practice of Skepticism: Montaigne and Zhuangzi on Freedom, Coexistence, and the Limits of Government” (Oxford University Press, 2026), explores enduring questions about political order and human freedom across intellectual traditions.
His teaching interests at DKU include philosophy, politics and economics; American institutions; Chinese philosophy; and the foundations of the social sciences.
His work has appeared in Philosophy East and West and “Liberal Education in a Free Society” (University of Missouri Press, 2023).
Rathnam received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Davidson College and his master’s degree in East Asian studies and doctorate in political science from the University of Toronto. Before joining DKU, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University and a visiting instructor at Davidson College.
Yu Wang, associate professor of sociology
Yu Wang studies how family formation, social mobility and population health shape contemporary society. Her research has deepened understanding of how marriage patterns, family dynamics and health behaviors influence social and economic inequality in China.
She also studies the intersections of work, family, gender and wealth accumulation, exploring how family dynamics contribute to broader patterns of social and economic stratification. Another line of her research investigates the social determinants of health, especially child vaccination and preventive health care use.
Wang’s research has been supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Marriage and Family, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Social Science Research and the American Journal of Public Health.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from Renmin University of China and her master’s degree and doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Shixin Xu, associate professor of mathematics
Shixin Xu’s interdisciplinary research combines applied mathematics, scientific computing and data science to address challenges in biology, medicine and industry. His work has advanced understanding of complex systems involving fluid flow, biological transport and computational modeling.
His recent research topics include semipermeable interface flows, electrohydrodynamics of droplets, reactive and active interfacial transport, glymphatic and optic nerve microcirculation, chronic disease risk prediction and parameter optimization in industrial systems.
Xu has published widely in applied mathematics, computational science, biophysics and data science, with recent papers appearing in the Journal of Computational Physics, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, Pattern Recognition and the International Conference on Machine Learning.
Xiaoqian Xu, associate professor of mathematics
Xiaoqian Xu’s research advances the mathematical understanding of fluid behavior and complex differential equations, contributing to both theoretical and applied mathematics. His work has applications in modeling, analysis and scientific computation.
His teaching interests at DKU include mathematical foundations and advanced courses in pure mathematics.
Xu holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Zhejiang University and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2016 to 2019, he held postdoctoral research positions at Carnegie Mellon University and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University.
The conferral of tenure and promotions at Duke Kunshan University represents one of the highest forms of academic recognition in higher education, granted after a rigorous evaluation process that assesses exceptional achievements in research, teaching, and service. At DKU, tenure is awarded based on three key criteria: the candidate’s work must be widely recognized as outstanding by peers in their field, their teaching must be highly regarded by students and colleagues, and they must have made meaningful contributions to the university community and their academic discipline.
