Dr. Meredith Oyen

Professional Background

Dr. Meredith Oyen is currently an associate professor in History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (United States). She holds a PhD from Georgetown University and a MA from the same institution. As a Sosland Fellow, Dr. Oyen will be conducting research for her project entitled “The Shanghai Survivors: World War Two’s Displaced Persons in Asia and the Politics of Resettlement”.

Dr. Oyen has speaking and reading ability in Mandarin Chinese.

Dr. Oyen published the book The Diplomacy of Migration: Transnational Lives and the Making of U.S.-Chinese Relations in the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2015). In addition to her monograph, she has published several articles. Her most recent research article is, “The Right of Return: Chinese Displaced Persons and the International Refugee Organization, 1947-56,” published in Modern Asian Studies 49.2 (March 2015): 546-571.  She has also written recently on the intersection of foreign policy and immigration history in the Journal of American Studies.

Fellowship Research

While in residence at the Center, Dr. Oyen researched the difficulties of postwar resettlement for those Jewish families who had immigrated to Shanghai before and during the war. She used the museums various collections, including the IRO records.

Dr. Oyen was in residence at the Mandel Center until April 30, 2017.