Tina Chen is the recipient of this year’s CELJ Distinguished Editor Award for her field-transforming (more accurately, field creating) editorship of Verge: Studies in Global Asias.

Here is what the selection committee had to say:

The selection committee was very impressed by the extremely high quality of the candidates nominated for the 2022 Distinguished Editor Award. Even in a crowded and competitive field, however, Dr. Tina Chen was the committee’s unanimous choice. As the creator and driving force behind Verge: Studies in Global Asias, Dr. Chen has done much more than edit a journal: she has helped develop a new field of Global Asias scholarship, created an infrastructure for the maintenance of that field, and developed a host of innovative frameworks for collaborative work and productive disagreement. The committee was especially impressed by the conference series, the Summer Institutes, the live discussions, and the new book series that Dr. Chen has developed in tandem with the journal. The committee was also impressed by features such as the “Codex,” “A&Q,” and the “Field Trip,” which offer what one writer described as “low stakes” entrance points for generating conversation. Finally, we were struck by the consistency with which the letters mentioned Dr. Chen’s intense mentoring of graduate students and her close work with the editors of special issues. Dr. Chen’s work strikes us as exemplary of what a great editor can do in fostering the intellectual environment in which new ideas can flourish.