Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman
Areas of Expertise
Memoir; Chinese History; International Development; Social Activism (Human Rights); Gender; Adoption Issues
Email: mellerma@brandeis.edu
Current Project
Mei-Mei is currently working on two memoirs: a cultural biography covering 150 years of the bi-racial Oiesen family, In Pursuit of Images and Shadows: An Adopted Chinese Daughter Journeys into her Mother’s Past, and Circles of Healing, Circles of Love: A Labyrinthine Journey in Search of Connection, testimony to the daunting 20 year search for her Chinese biological origins.
Biography
After 30 years of teaching Italian literature and cinema, Mei-Mei now focuses on research, writing and social activism. A Scholar at the WSRC and Research Associate at Wellesley in East Asian Languages and Literatures, Mei-Mei serves as Board Director of Polaris Project (leading anti-trafficking NGO in Washington, DC and Tokyo), and Coordinator of the Polaris Boston Chapter. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Chinese Adoptee Links International (CAL), and the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.
Mei-Mei’s memoir on her adoptive family draws on personal narratives, letters, and photographs dating back to the 1800s, interwoven with the author’s discoveries throughout years of research in France, Denmark, China, Thailand and Korea. Her vast travels have allowed Mei-Mei to unlock long-held family secrets and reassess crucial aspects of her Danish grandfather’s career (Commissioner for over 40 years in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs and Danish Ambassador to China), her Chinese grandmother’s mysterious past, and the singular lives of the second biracial generation, educated in the United States and Europe.
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University
M.A., Boston University
B.A. equivalent, University of Geneva
Representative Publications
Héricourt, Mme., d’. “Madame Rose: A Life of Ernestine L. Rose as told to Jenny P. d’Héricourt.” Ed. Paula Doress-Worters. Trans. J. Pincus, M.M. Ellerman, I. Kisliuk, E. Harth, and A.J. Worters. Journal of Women’s History 15.1. John Hopkins University Press, 2003. 183-201.
Ellerman, Mei Mei A. In Pursuit of Images and Shadows: A Daughter’s First Steps in Search of her Mothers’ Pasts. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley Centers for Women, 1997.
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