Aynne Kokas

Aynne Kokas is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for East and Southeast Asia. She is the Director of the University of Virginia East Asia Center, C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and a Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Kokas’ research examines Sino-U.S. media and technology relations. Her award-winning second book Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty (new tab) (Oxford University Press, 2023; Japanese Edition, Nikkei Press, 2024) argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global technology oversight. Her award-winning first book Hollywood Made in China (University of California Press, 2017) argues that Chinese investment and regulations have transformed the U.S. commercial media industry, most prominently in the case of media conglomerates’ leverage of global commercial brands. Kokas' research and writing have been cited in over fifty countries and more than sixteen languages.

She has received fellowships from the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Japan’s Abe Fellowship, and other international organizations. Her writing and commentary have appeared globally in more than 50 countries and 15 languages. In the United States, her research and writing appear regularly in media outlets including CNBC, NPR’s Marketplace, The Washington Post, and Wired. She has testified before the Senate Finance Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Kokas is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program.