Co-Directors
Emily McWilliams

Emily McWilliams is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Duke Kunshan University. She is a philosopher and epistemologist, with research interests in epistemic normativity, and in feminist social epistemology, which lies at the intersection of epistemology and ethics. As an ethicist, she has both research and teaching interest, as well as a long-standing personal interest, in animal ethics. At DKU, She has designed and taught the 2-credit writing course PHIL 111: Non-Human Animal Ethics. And she has been involved with animal rescue in the Kunshan/Suzhou area, since moving here in 2018.
Claudia Nisa

Claudia Nisa is Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Duke Kunshan University. Her research program focuses on the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to promote healthy and sustainable living. She translates behavioral science into practice to tackle critical social challenges, and to respond to calls for better informed policies. She uses a variety of methodological tools including (1) Lab studies testing small-scale psychologically-driven interventions; (2) Large field experiments testing how to scale-up behavioral interventions in natural settings; and (3) Evidence-based policy evaluation, based on meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials and quasi-experiments.
Affiliated Faculty
Jaehee Choi
Jaehee Choi is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Duke Kunshan University. Her core research agenda centers on understanding how social policies can address income inequality; her research fields include income inequality, social insurance, and work and family policy. Recent projects examine the effectiveness of universal childcare on women’s employment; and the effect of exchange rate shocks on earnings inequality. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin.
Pippa Morgan

Pippa Morgan is a Lecturer in Political Science at Duke Kunshan University. Her research focuses on the political economy of China’s foreign economic relations, Chinese foreign aid, foreign direct investment, and China-Africa relations. More broadly, she is interested in combining quantitative and qualitative methods to understand how history influences contemporary political economy and international relations, and in how political and sociological factors impact prospects for economic development. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include global governance, political economy of institutions, and China and the Global South.
Tommaso Tesei

Tommaso Tesei is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Duke Kunshan University.
Daniel Weissglass

Daniel Weissglass is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duke Kunshan University. He has two major research programs – the fundamentals of cognition and science, health, and technology policy. The fundamentals of cognition program explores intersections between philosophy and the cognitive sciences to improve our understanding of the mind and its operations. His science, health, and technology policy research explores ethical, epistemic, and political challenges arising from contemporary advances in technology and develops policy recommendations to address these challenges. You can see the output of this and related projects in a searchable listing on his research page. You can also find out more about his teaching, including his teaching philosophy, courses taught, and sample syllabi on his teaching page.
Minghao Zhang

Rainie (Minghao) Zhang is a lecturer in English language at the Language and Culture Center at DKU. She received her Master of Education in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University and her Master of Arts in TESOL from San Francisco State University. She has taught university academic English for close to 10 years both in the US and in China. Her main research interests include the ultimate attainment of adult second language acquisition, language learning aptitude, and independent language learning. Outside her academic work, she is an active advocate for animal welfare and has been closely involved in animal rescue with several non-profit organizations both in New York and in Suzhou for the past 10 years.
Chen Zhang
Chen Zhang is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Duke Kunshan University.
Wehn Zhou

Wen Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke Kunshan University. She earned her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. Prior to this, she received B.S. in Psychology at Beijing Normal University. Her research aims to understand what it means to be a human and the moral status a human is believed to deserve. Her current projects focus on dehumanization and its developmental origins. Her work also involves research on social hierarchy, human-animal relations and conservation, deploying an integrative approach drawn from social and developmental psychology.
Students Assistants
Yixuan Lui
Yixuan is currently (AY24-25) a junior in Behavioral Science. She was the first RAs for the CARE Lab, helping set uptheLab’s lo
go and community outreach activities. She is an active animal lover and protector: she set up an organization to help stray animals when she was in high school, having already rescued about 10 animals and found a new home for each of them so far. She has worked as a volunteer in a dog rescue organization in Kunshan, close to DKU ca
mpus for about 1 year.
Kenza Miftah
KenzaMiftah is from Morocco, Casablanca. She is Class of 2025 majoring in Cell and MolecularBiology. She was motivated to join the Care Lab because her parents are veterinarians, and growing up with pets at home instilled in her a strong sense of responsibility and care for animals. She was excited to continue their legacy of animal care during her time in college. As one of the pioneering members who helped establish the Care Lab’sidentity, she put her creative sense in designing the logo. Additionally, she was part of organizing the first on-campus event, which successfully raised awareness for our cause and gaveusinitial exposure to students, faculty, and staff. In digitally promoting animal protection initiatives, she was responsible for reaching the English-speaking audience on Western social media platforms by making videos and posts. She also contributed to improving the conditions for the first generation of campus cats by providing them shelter and food. Now, the number of campus cats has grown significantly.
Muxi Chen
Muxi was also one of the first RAs to be hired for the CARE Lab. During her time with the CARE Lab, her main focus was selecting and editing original videos of cute animals from Western popular YouTube channels (like The Dodo) and help disseminate these videos to a Chinese audience. She was responsible for both the video editing and adding captions to help emphasize their cuteness and increase engagement in the platform created for the CARE Lab in Bilibili https://space.bilibili.com/3493141638285716.
Sim Shu Qing
Sim is currently (AY24-25) asenior in Behavioral Science. He and Zhiwei Liu developed an Independent Research Study to examine animal-assisted interventions for promoting mental well-being. This work focused on conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of canine-assisted therapy for reducing stress and anxiety levels in university students.
Zhiwei Liu
Zhiwei is currently (AY24-25) a senior in Behavioral Science. She and Sim Liu developed an Independent Research Study to examine animal-assisted interventions for promoting mental well-being. This work focused on conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of canine-assisted therapy for reducing stress and anxiety levels in university students. Additionally, together with Yixuan, they establish a therapy dog platform “Puppy Power”, connecting the demand and supply of therapy dogs. This enabled them to provide therapy-dog interactive services and professional training programs for demanders. Meanwhile, they are committed to popularizing the knowledge related to therapy dogs and promoting the public’s understanding.
Keyi Shi
Keyi Shi was a graduate student in the International Master in Environmental Science (iMEP). She conducted a field study at DKU cafeteria testing different messages with the aim to reduce the consumption of meat. She tested the impact of messages targeting different motivations: environmental factors, human health factors and animal welfare factors. These messages were presented in different days and placed in various outdoor posters in the cafeteria. She found that mostly warning about meat being potentially harmful for human health reduced the consumption of meat.