Hongwei Thorn Chen is an Assistant Professor in Communication and Asian Studies at Tulane University. He received his PhD in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. Chen’s research examines nontheatrical film, media history, and the trajectories of colonial modernity in modern China. Chen has been the recipient of the Mellon-International Dissertation Research Fellowship, and his writing has appeared in Wide Screen, The Journal of Chinese Cinemas, and the Journal of E-Media Studies.

At the Studio in the Woods, he will finish a manuscript for his book on Chinese educational film and state building.