Assistant Professor of History
She/Her/Hers
Asian American History; Law and Culture; Race, Empire, and Migration
Jilene Chua is Assistant Professor in Asian American History. Born in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, she largely grew up in Richland, Washington. At BU, she teaches courses related to Asian American history (HI 372, HI 459), fashion and U.S. empire (HI/AA 355), and global Philippines through food (HI 554).
Her research on twentieth-century Philippines intersects U.S. empire, Chinese migration, and legal history. Her current book project, Model Merchants, Criminal Workers, investigates how US Chinese exclusion extended from the mainland US to the Philippines, and how these laws became part of histories of class struggle and formation.
On Leave: Fall 2026-2027