Roya Grace Chu

Field: Modern Chinese History
Advisor: Eugenia Lean & Madeleine Zelin
Email: rgc2145@columbia.edu

Roya is a Ph.D. student in the History-East Asia Program. She is interested in the interface between science and technology, local society and state-building processes in late imperial and modern China. Her current research revolves around the artisanal tea industry in China, with an aim to trace its participation in transnational circuits of knowledge coproduction and to explore the tensions between quotidian lives, state ambitions and global currents. Before joining the program, she received a B.A. (Hons) in History with distinction from University College London (2021) and an M.A. in Regional Studies: East Asia from Columbia University (2023).