International Scholar Engagement and Collaboration
The University of Notre Dame and its Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies support robust programs for guest scholars and artists from Asia, providing funding to encourage academic and research collaboration. Visiting scholars join a supportive community of researchers and receive access to world-class resources and materials.
About
The Liu Institute was founded by a gift from an Asian American family. Graduates Emily and Justin Liu and their parents, Robert and Mimi—Asian immigrants who became successful American entrepreneurs—made their donation in 2010 to educate students and support scholars of Asia from multiple disciplines. The Liu Institute is one of nine international institutes and centers that make up the Keough School of Global Affairs, whose mission is to advance integral human development through research, policy, and practice.
Read more about the Liu Institute's mission.
Opportunities
Independent Visiting Scholars: Liu Institute
The Liu Institute supports visiting scholars from Asia to conduct research in Asian Studies at Notre Dame. We welcome expressions of interest from scholars planning to spend up to one year at Notre Dame. Potential applicants are encouraged to first liaise with Notre Dame faculty whose research interests align with their priorities.
Asia Guest Scholar/Artist Partnership Program: Notre Dame Global
Administered by Notre Dame Global, the university’s internationalization unit, this program brings together outstanding guest scholars and artists from Asia. A campus unit will apply on behalf of the guest scholar/artist and host them for 2 to 16 weeks. During the visit, the guest scholar/artist will pursue their own research/art while engaging in the intellectual and artistic life at Notre Dame.
Asia Research Collaboration Grant: Notre Dame Global
Sponsored by Notre Dame Global, this grant supports new and existing international collaboration for research projects, faculty and graduate student exchange, conferences, seminars, and more.
Fulbright Programs at the University of Notre Dame
International scholars can visit Notre Dame through the prestigious Fulbright program in a number of ways. For example, the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program provides grants to foreign scholars to conduct post-doctoral research at U.S. institutions from a semester to a full academic year.
Institute for Ethics and the Common Good Faculty Fellowship
The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good awards six to eight residential Faculty Fellowships annually to researchers whose work addresses the Institute’s yearly research theme. During the 2026-27 academic year, the Liu Institute will cosponsor one of the fellowships for a scholar from Asia. The application will open in summer 2026.
Visit the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good
Fellows
Nearly 100 faculty members from almost every department on campus serve as faculty fellows for the Liu Institute. In addition to conducting their own Asia-related research, fellows often engage students in their work.
Director
Founding Director Michel Hockx is a professor of Chinese literature, who specializes in modern and contemporary literature as well as cultural policy of the People’s Republic of China. He joined Notre Dame in 2016. A native of the Netherlands, he studied Chinese language and literature at Leiden University, where he earned his PhD.
Representative China Scholars
Liang Cai, History
Cai specializes in Chinese political and intellectual history. Focusing on Qin-Han dynasties (221 BCE -23 CE), the fountainhead of Chinese civilization, Cai’s publications cover Confucianism, bureaucracy, law, social networks, and archaeologically excavated manuscripts.
Tarryn Chun, Film, Television, and Theatre
Chun focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese theatre and teaches courses in Asian theatre, global theatre history, intercultural performance, adaptation, and intersections among theatre and other arts/media. Recent work examines the relationship between technological modernization and artistic innovation in 20th-21st century Chinese theatre.
Joshua Eisenman, Global Affairs
Eisenman’s research focuses on the political economy of China’s development and foreign relations with the United States and the Global South, particularly Africa. His recent work examines the full scope of political and security relations between China and Africa.
Kyle Jaros, Global Affairs
Jaros’s research explores the politics of urban and regional development, intergovernmental relations, and subnational foreign engagement with a focus on China. His recent work examines the policy logics and political factors driving uneven development in China’s provinces.
Elisabeth Köll, History
Köll specializes in the business and socioeconomic history from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century, with focus on the role and transformation of institutions in China’s evolution from empire into a modern nation-state. Current work explores China’s role in the global history of informal finance and the transitioning to modern banking institutions.
Xian Wang, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Wang’s research interests encompass modern Chinese literature, film, popular culture, gender and memory studies. Her current work explores the intersection of female martyrdom, national memory, and gender politics in modern Chinese history, centered around the lives and narratives of iconic revolutionary female figures.
Xueying Wang, Theology
Wang’s research focuses on Catholicism in China, especially the Chinese Rites Controversy (ca. 1630–1742). Her work covers Chinese Catholic intellectuals including Yan Mo, Zhang Xingyao and Xia Dachang who offer divergent perspectives on how their Confucian heritage can be harmonized with their newfound Catholic faith.
Patrick Yim, Music
Yim has commissioned more than 40 works and performed the works around the world at world-class museum galleries (Hong Kong Museum of History and the National Museum of Denmark), concert halls (Seoul Arts Center; Sheung Wan Civic Center and Tai Kwun Center for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong; Goethe Institut in Kolkata, India, among others.
Representative South Asia Scholars
Arun Agrawal, Global Affairs
Environmental politics;sustainable development; governance
Neil Boothby, Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child
Project Sampoorna in Telagana for disadvantaged children
Nitesh Chawla, Engineering
Data science, network science, ethical artificial intelligence
Santosh Kumar Gautam, Global Affairs
Global health economics
Kasturi Haldar, Biological Sciences
Pathogenesis of neurological and infectious diseases
Lakshmi Iyer, Global Affairs
Development economics and political economy
Ahsan Kareem, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Impact of natural hazards on the constructed environment
Mehak Khan, English
Global Anglophone literature
Julia Kowalski, Global Affairs
Cultural anthropology focused on gender, kinship, and expertise
Krupali Uplekar Krusche, Architecture
Urban and architectural design and digital documentation
Nikhil Menon, History
Histories of democracy, development, and diplomacy in independent India
Ebrahim Moosa, Global Affairs
Global religion, modern Islamic thought
Susan Ostermann, Global Affairs
Comparative politics, regulatory compliance, and environmental regulation
Aidan Seale-Feldman, Anthropology
Disaster, humanitarianism, and psychosocial interventions in the Himalayas