Jenny J Lee

Biography

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-Elect 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.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Higher Education and Organizational Change
• University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States