She earned a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan. She is the author of Chinese Cubans: A Transnational History (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and co-editor of a special issue on “Afro-Asia” of the Afro-Hispanic Review 27.1 (2008). Her research and teaching focus on the historical intersections between Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, postemancipation Caribbean societies, race and ethnicity in the Americas, and international migration.