The International Institute is delighted to announce that Ford School Professor Ann Chih Lin has been appointed director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, effective November 1, 2021. The Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) was established in 1961. It is one of the nation's most prominent centers devoted to a deeper understanding of China, past and present. Named the Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies (LRCCS) in 2014, LRCCS is the premier place on the University of Michigan campus to gain access to resources on China, including leading scholars, ongoing projects, and funding for faculty and student research. It houses experts in nearly every major facet of Chinese studies ranging from literature and history to law and public health.
Lin is an associate professor of public policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. At the Ford School, Lin leads the graduate global experience course on current Chinese policy and teaches both graduate and undergraduate policy seminars on immigration and on voting. Her current work examines whether respondents across 18 countries blamed China or the U.S. for the COVID-19 pandemic; racial and ethnic difference in the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States; bias reduction against Muslims; and national security scapegoating of immigrant groups.
Lin co-created the Ford School of Public Policy's global experience program on China over a decade ago. The program's centerpiece is an intensive seminar on current Chinese policy, followed by a two week trip to China where students meet with government officials, international organizations, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and issue advocates to learn more about the issues they studied.
"I am honored to be named director of the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies as it celebrates its 60th anniversary," Professor Lin said about the appointment. "Over its history, the Center has played a leading role in advancing the study of China and Chinese civilization for scholars worldwide, and in introducing China to the United States. This mission is even more important at a time when the political relationship between these two countries is difficult. I believe that LRCCS can play a pivotal role in promoting mutual understanding, appreciation, and respect."
"China, of course, has changed dramatically since 1961. And those changes have not only been within its borders: the growth and spread of the Chinese diaspora means that what we know as 'Chinese' is continually being remade and reimagined in countries all over the world. As a Chinese-American myself, I hope to encourage the study of Chinese communities everywhere, alongside the excellent work that LRCCS has always sponsored on China itself."
Lin received her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago in 1994 and was the 1992-93 Robert W. Hartley Fellow in Governmental Studies at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Prior to receiving her PhD, Dr. Lin was a social worker at Covenant House in New York City, and a member of the Covenant House Faith Community. In 1991, she worked as a consultant to the ACLU on Freeman v. Pitts, a landmark desegregation case from DeKalb County, Georgia.
