By training, I am a political historian of China and Japan. Coming to WPI has expanded how I view my own research and teaching and what can be done with them. I’ve led WPI’s efforts to build China-related programs for STEM students on campus and off. With like-minded colleagues I helped establish and now direct WPI’s East Asia Hub (formally China Hub), established and co-direct WPI’s Hangzhou and Taiwan Project Centers, and advise the Chinese Studies minor. With WPI’s student body in mind, I’ve developed and teach classes on China and Japan’s popular culture, US-China-Japan relations, megaprojects in China, global approaches to engineering, Asian nationalisms, and more. I really value WPI’s commitment to project-based learning and incorporate it in all my classes. In terms of research, my most recent books aim to bring greater understanding to the general public of China’s rise and the complexities of its global position and internal politics. (A Carrai, J Rudolph, and M Szonyi, eds., The China Questions 2: Critical Insights in the US-China Relationship, Harvard, 2022; J Rudolph and M Szonyi, eds. The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power, Harvard 2018). I’m also currently working on a book on political identity in the Taiwan Strait that allows me to focus on a figure branded both a pirate and a god!