Biography

Chris Suh is Associate Professor of History at Emory University, where he teaches Asian American history and the history of US-Asian relations. He is the founding faculty coordinator of the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies (AAADS) Initiative at Emory, as well as the longtime faculty director of the student group Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists (APIDAA).

Since arriving at Emory in 2019, Suh has received numerous awards and fellowships in recognition of his research, teaching, advising, and service, including the Emory College Award for Academic Advising and the Laura Jones Hardman Award for Excellence in Service to the Emory Community for his work with Asian American students on campus. In addition to mentoring a large number of students interested in Asian American Studies, he has played an instrumental role in the creation of the university’s first affinity space for Asian American students (Asian Student Center). In 2023-2024, he became the first Emory faculty member to be named a Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader fellow from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation).

Suh’s research focuses on the role of geopolitics in shaping US domestic politics and Asian American political behavior. His first book, The Allure of Empire: American Encounters with Asians in the Age of Transpacific Expansion and Exclusion (Oxford University Press, 2023), received an Honorable Mention for the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). His articles have appeared in the Journal of American History, Diplomatic History, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and the Pacific Historical Review, the last of which received the Dorothy Ross Prize from the Society for US Intellectual History (S-USIH) and the W. Turrentine Jackson Prize from the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch (AHA-PCB).

A publicly engaged scholar, he has been a guest speaker at various events on anti-Asian racism and Asian American history organized by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Asian American Voices for Education (AAVEd), Gwinnett County Public Schools, and Stop AAPI Hate. His research has been highlighted by numerous national outlets including AP, NBC News, NPR, Time, and Vanity Fair.

For more information, please see his CV.