hi, i’m emily!

I’m a second-generation Chinese American writer, educator, and researcher from San Diego. I studied Classical Civilization and English at UCLA, with a minor in Cognitive Science, before receiving a Fulbright grant to teach English in Taiwan.

After two years of teaching in Yilan and Taoyuan, I returned home to California to earn my  Master’s degree in Learning Design and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where I explored new technological horizons and how they enhance and interweave with education. At Stanford, I developed my voice and values as a learning scientist: creating joyful, colorful, and human-centered experiences that trust in users, celebrate their creativity, and help foster a love of lifelong learning.

However, my time in Silicon Valley amidst rapid advancements in generative AI also led me to new questions beyond the immediate product; in particular, how concepts of intelligence have evolved and shaped notions of personhood, and what these histories can illuminate about contemporary landscapes of techno-optimism and startup culture imaginaries. Such questions guide me now as a PhD student in History of Science at Princeton. 

I imagine my questions will be evolving for some time, but I hope that this work — in whatever form it takes — can help us understand how people have defined and lived alongside many forms of technological change, and how we might make meaning to sustain our own selves and communities.