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Selina Lai-Henderson

Associate Professor of American Literature and History at Duke Kunshan University
DKU Faculty

Overview


My research is at the heart of transnational American Studies, locating works of American literature in twentieth-century China and in translation. I am the author of Mark Twain in China (Stanford UP, 2015). My article, "You Are No Darker Than I Am: The Souls of Black Folk in Maoist China" (PMLA, Sep 2023), is the 2023 winner of the 1921 Prize in American Literature (tenured category). In addition to The Yale Review, MELUS, and Journal of Transnational American Studies, my work has appeared in edited volumes on Langston Hughes and Mark Twain (Cambridge UP). I am the incoming Book Review Editor of American Quarterly (publication of the American Studies Association). In Spring 2025, I will be joining Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research as a W.E.B Du Bois Institute Fellow.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor of American Literature and History at Duke Kunshan University · 2023 - Present DKU Faculty
Assistant Professor of the Practice of DKU Studies at Duke University · 2023 - Present DKU Studies

Education, Training & Certifications


University of Hong Kong (China) · 2013 Ph.D.