WEAI Congratulates Director Eugenia Lean on Appointment as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

The Weatherhead East Asian Institute is pleased to announce that Director Eugenia Lean has been appointed Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and will transition into her new role on July 1, 2022. Madeleine Zelin, former director and Dean Lung Professor of Chinese Studies, will step in as Interim Director.

An outstanding leader, mentor, and academic, Professor Lean has made an indelible mark on the Columbia community since joining the University in 2002. Professor Lean is the 12th and current director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, a position she assumed in 2014 when she became the first woman of Asian descent to spearhead the Institute. She is a member of the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department and Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Executive Committee, co-director of the Heyman Center Fellows Seminar, cosponsor of the Global History of Science Cluster, a member of the Steering Committee at the Center for Science and Society, and a mentor for the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience.

Professor Lean’s contributions as a mentor were singled out when she received the 2013–2014 Faculty Mentoring Award from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. An expert on modern Chinese history, Professor Lean teaches China-related courses in the history of science, technology, and industry, as well as gender and affect, consumer culture, cultural theory, and historical methods.

In addition to her many roles supporting students and faculty, Professor Lean is also a distinguished scholar who has dedicated herself to expanding the field of East Asian studies and Chinese history in particular. She is the author of Vernacular Industrialism in China: Local Innovation and Translated Technologies in the Making of a Cosmetics Empire, 1900-1940 (2020), and Public Passions: the Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China, which was awarded the 2007 John K. Fairbank prize for the best book in modern East Asian history, presented by the American Historical Association. Her work has received wide support, and she has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Harvard University’s Fairbank Center, the Institute for Advanced Studies, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and a National Endowment of the Humanities grant. She \ was also featured in “Top Young Historians,” History News Network (fall 2008).

During her directorship, Professor Lean oversaw the creation of various initiatives, cementing the Institute’s reputation as a pioneer in the study of modern East Asia. Her “New Directions" initiative, inaugurated during the Institute’s 70th anniversary, paved previously unexplored paths in the field of East Asian studies, bringing together WEAI’s uniquely interdisciplinary body of scholars for a series of groundbreaking events and projects. Professor Lean’s latest “Asia in Action” initiative highlights scholarly work, artistic endeavors, and political action from outside of academia to address our changing world, with a particular focus on the challenges currently facing people of Asian descent.

Other benchmarks during Professor Lean’s tenure include the inauguration of the Dorothy Borg Research program at WEAI, which provides postdoctoral positions, collaborative grants, and graduate fellowships in the study of East Asia and US relations. She has also put particular emphasis on advancing the Institute’s commitment to Modern Tibetan Studies and Southeast Asia studies. This support notably led to the establishment of a Vietnamese Studies initiative at Columbia. 

Professor Lean’s strong directorship in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most pressing collective challenges of our time, ensured that the Weatherhead East Asian Institute will continue to be a leader in East, Inner, and Southeast Asian studies for years to come. We send our sincerest congratulations to Professor Lean and wish her the very best of luck in her new position.