Mei-Mei Akwai Ellerman

Areas of Expertise

Memoir; Historical Biography; Chinese History; International Development; Social and Political Activism (Human Trafficking, Adoption and Gender Issues)

Email: mellerma@brandeis.edu

Current Project

Mei-Mei is working on two memoirs: a cultural biography covering 160 years of her bi-racial adoptive family, In Pursuit of Images and Shadows: A Chinese Daughter Journeys into her Mothers’ Pasts, and Circles of Healing, Circles of Love: A Labyrinthine Journey in Search of Connection, testimony to the daunting 25-year-long ongoing search for her Chinese biological roots.

Biography

Born and adopted in the United States, Dr. Ellerman studied at Harvard, Boston University, the University of Geneva, and the Liceo Michelangiolo in Florence.

After decades of teaching Italian literature and cinema, Mei-Mei now focuses on research, writing and social activism. She is a scholar at the WSRC and research associate at Wellesley in East Asian languages and literatures. A founding board director of Polaris Project (leading anti-human trafficking NGO in Washington, DC and Tokyo), and the Polaris Boston representative, she also serves on the Board of Chinese Adoptee Links International, Global Generations, and the International Advisory Board of the A. G. Bell Association for the Deaf.

Mei-Mei’s memoir on her adoptive family draws on personal narratives, letters, and photographs from the 1800s, interwoven with discoveries made during years of worldwide research. Her travels to France, Denmark, China, Thailand, and Korea, have allowed the author to unlock long-held family secrets and reassess vital aspects of her Danish grandfather’s career (in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs and as Ambassador to China). They have also led her to unravel the mysterious past of her Chinese grandmother. Mei-Mei’s ongoing search for her biological roots continues to unfold like a never-ending fairy tale.

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University

M.A., Boston University

B.A. equivalent, University of Geneva

Representative Publications

Ellerman, Mei-Mei Akwai, “The Freckle.” Adoption Today (May 2009). 

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. 

Links

Polaris Project

Chinese Adoptee Links

Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

G2-China Care