Meiling Wu, Ph.D Faculty Profile

Dr. Meiling Wu is the professor and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages
and Literature (MLL) at CSUEB; and co-Chair of the Department of Writing, Language, and
Literature (WLL). She is the principal investigator and the program director of the Student
Service Operation for Success at CSUEB, a five-year, 1.85M, U.S. Department of Education
Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institute (AANAPISI) federal
grant. In 2015, her AANAPISI Part A proposal was selected for a new award of 1.5M grant.
In 2016, she is again awarded another AANAPSIS Part F grant for 1.75M and co-established
the Transfer Asian Pacific American Student Success (Trans-APASS) program. She has
recently received the donation from the Heritage of Korean Independence USA Northwest
Foundation to Support Courses in Korean Language and Culture. She was the principal
investigator of the sub-award Pashto and Dari Programs at CSUEB, a CSU Strategic
Language Institute, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. She also received the
salary assistance grants from Japan Foundation LA since 2018 and established the Minor in
Japanese Language and Culture in 2019.
Dr. Wu was the co-Chair of Asian/ Pacific Islander Faculty and Staff Association from
2006-2010. She participated in the CSUEB president charged Affinity-based Student
Success and Resource Center Task Force that successfully established the Asian American
Pacific Islander Student Success Center in 2021. She also has served many faculty
governance committees at CSUEB, including currently as the Statewide Senator of CSU
Academic Senate (ASCSU), chaired the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC), Committee on
Instruction and Curriculum (CIC), chaired the Committee on Budget and Resource
Allocation (COBRA), etc. She served CSU Academic Council on International Programs
(ACIP), the Selection Committee for California Pre-Doctoral Program, and chaired
Mandarin Lower Division Transfer Programs for the CSU.
Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from State University of New
York-Binghamton. Growing up multilingual, (Wu-paternal Mandarin Chinese, Hayama-
maternal Japanese, and local Min, Wu, Hōnichi dialects) and receiving higher education
from the United States, Dr. Wu is the scholar of East Asian languages, cultures, cinema, and

literature. Born to a family that has an international timber business enterprise in Borneo
(Indonesia and Malaysia), Singapore, China, Taiwan and Japan, she has been a frequent
visitor to Asia and participated in many scholarly research and social resistance against
colonialism, slavery, and globalization.