Session: Writing for Broad Audiences

In June, I went to THATCamp at George Mason University -- my first one ever -- and learned so much that when I heard there is a SoCal THATCamp, I signed up. I'm working with the Association for Asian Studies and the Journal of Asian Studies to launch a news and features website about the region. I also co-edited a book of essays by journalists and scholars about everyday lives in China (to be published Sept. 13 by UC Press).

Here's my bio: I am a freelance journalist and editor based in Los Angeles, but I've reported from across Asia, including China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, and I was a South Asian Journalists Association Reporting Fellow in 2007–8. I am the former editor of the online magazine AsiaMedia, then published at the UCLA Asia Institute, and a consulting editor to the Journal of Asian Studies. I've taught in undergraduate global journalism internship programs, as an international fellows at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore, and have a particular fondness for barcamps in Southeast Asia. My writing has appeared in the LA Weekly, Far Eastern Economic Review, Mother Jones Online, Miller-McCune Magazine, TimeOut Singapore, and Global Voices. I've also co-edited a book of essays by scholars and journalists about everyday lives in China with historian Jeff Wasserstrom. It's called Chinese Characters and will be published this summer by UC Press.