James Cook is currently the Associate Director of the Asian Studies Center. James was born and raised in Southeast Asia, until moving to Long Island and San Francisco in his teenage years. As an undergraduate he studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz where he wrote his thesis on China’s foreign policy in Southeast Asia. After completing his M.A. in Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego, he studied at Peking University. He completed his Ph.D. at San Diego in 1998 in East Asian history. After 13 years at Central Washington University in the Department of History and as Director of the Asian Studies Program, he joined ASC.

His research interests include the impact of Overseas Chinese on the development of modern China and the environmental history of northwestern China. He works extensively in China, Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan.