Jenny J. Lee is a professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education and College of Education Dean's Fellow for Internationalization at the University of Arizona. She is also the Vice President for Division J: Postsecondary Education for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and is co-editor of the book series, Studies in Global Higher Education. She formerly served as a NAFSA Senior Fellow, US Fulbright Scholar to South Africa, the Chair for the Council of International Higher Education and Board of Directors for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). She has participated as a distinguished Global Professor at Korea University and as an international visiting scholar at City University of London, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Professor Lee's research examines how migration policies, geopolitics, and social forces shape inequities in higher education, in the US and abroad. Professor Lee has investigated university internationalization and partnerships, student and scholar mobility, and scientific collaboration, to name some. Based on her comparative research in the US, Southern Africa, and East Asia, she has introduced widely cited critical frameworks, such as neo-racism and neo-nationalism, to the field. In addition, Dr. Lee’s expertise is regularly sought by national and international news outlets. NPR, Nature, Science, the New York Times, ABC News, Al Jazeera, and the Chronicle of Higher Education are among the prominent news networks that have quoted Professor Lee and featured her research.
Her latest research focuses on the geopolitics of global science, which is covered in her award-winning edited book, “U.S. Power in International Higher Education,” published by Rutgers University Press in 2021. Currently, she is undergoing two major studies, one funded by NSF (with PhD student John Haupt) and another in partnership with the Committee of 100 (with PhD student Xiaojie Li), on how international research collaboration can overcome current US-China tensions and the racial profiling of Chinese scientists and students in the US.
You can read some of her recent op-eds here:
Lee, Jenny J. (2022, July 19). How China–US collaborations still happen, despite politics. Nature.
Li, Xiaojie & Lee, Jenny J. (2022, April 16). When geopolitical tensions interrupt the academic project. University World News.
Lee, Jenny J. & Lundemo, Ola (2021, June 5). Why sustainability is not enough in international education. University World News.
Lee, Jenny J. (2020). Neo-racism and the Criminalization of China. Journal of International Students, 10(4), i-vi.
Haupt, John P. & Jenny J. Lee (2020). US–China scientific cooperation faces an uncertain future. East Asia Forum.
Cantwell, Brendan. & Jenny J. Lee (2020, July 25). The impossibility of a nationalist university. University World News.
Lee, Jenny J. (2020, July 8). International students shouldn’t be political pawns. Inside Higher Ed.
Lee, Jenny J. & John Haupt. (2020, January 7). The “China threat” and the future of global science. Scientific American.
Lee, Jenny J. (2019, November 9). Universities, neo-nationalism and the ‘China threat’. University World News.
