Christopher K. Tong is an Associate Professor tenured at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County near Washington, DC, and an open-source researcher specializing in the analysis of sociocultural dynamics, science, and technology. I hold degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, Davis, and previously served as a postdoctoral fellow in East Asian studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
While much of my work draws on sources, fieldwork, and archival research in China, my approach is explicitly comparative, bridging Asian, European, and North American contexts. My forthcoming book with Oxford University Press analyzes the emergence of evolutionary science and ecological consciousness in Chinese and Western traditions. My research has benefited from the support of major foundations and institutions, including two fellowships from the Fulbright Program, a China Studies Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, a William S. Willis, Jr. Fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, and a Marjorie Harding Memorial Fellowship from the Thoreau Society.
In addition, I apply multidisciplinary methods to policy-relevant research, which has been facilitated by my role as the Principal Investigator for a UMBC Cyber Fellowship. My public scholarship has reached national and international audiences through The Conversation, the Associated Press, and major US newspapers and media organizations. A former volunteer with the National Language Service Corps, I work across multiple languages, including English, Mandarin Chinese (ILR 4+), Cantonese (DLI OPI 3), and German (DLPT 3), with additional reading proficiency in French (DLPT 2) and Japanese.
For the UMBC Magazine, I discuss my Fulbright experience in China and research trip to Mongolia with Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque.
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