Jennifer Rudolph

Jennifer Rudolph is a Professor of History in the Humanities and Arts Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Before moving to WPI, she was at the University at Albany (SUNY). By training, Rudolph is a political historian of China and Japan. She received her AB from the University of Chicago and her MA and PhD from the University of Washington.

Rudolph is part of the Mapping Global China leadership team. She was a founding member and executive board member of the Urban China Research Network (UCRN) at the University of Albany and part of the original cohort of faculty consultants for the Expanding East Asian Studies (ExEAS) collaborative at Columbia University. She is a former Executive Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Harvard China Fund at Harvard University. She has been a Research Associate at the Fairbank Center since 2000 and is a long-term member of the National Committee of US-China Relations.

Since moving to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Rudolph has expanded her approach to studying and teaching about China, incorporating both project-based learning and STEM topics and methods. She has led WPI’s efforts to build Asia-related programs for STEM students domestically and internationally. She established and directs WPI’s Global Asia Hub, founded and co-directs WPI’s Hangzhou, Singapore, and Taiwan Project Centers, and advises WPI’s Chinese Studies minor and major.

Her co-edited The China Questions book series focuses on bringing greater understanding to decision makers and the general public of China’s global position and the complexities of its internal and external politics and practices (The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power, with M Szonyi; Harvard University Press, 2018; The China Questions 2: Critical Insights into US-China Relations, with MA Carrai and M Szonyi; Harvard University Press, 2022). She is the author of Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China: The Zongli Yamen and the Politics of Change (Cornell East Asia Series, 2008). With Maria Adele Carrai, she is currently co-editing a collected volume entitled Global China: History, Methods, and Encounters. She is also currently working on a co-edited volume with Michael Szonyi and Scott Kennedy focusing on business in China.