Her research focuses on global supply chains in fashion and the transnational role of migrant entrepreneurs. She has a project on West African and Korean religious communities related to the doctrine of prosperity based in Guangzhou, China. Her teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include cultures and movements, global China studies and cultural anthropology.
In 2016-17, she held a fellowship with the American Council for Learned Societies / Henry Luce Foundation for China Studies and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and served as visiting professor at the University of Goettingen's Center for Modern East Asian Studies in Germany. In 2017-18, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University's School for Industrial and Labor Research.
Chu has a B.A. in international relations (highest honors) and German language and culture (high honors) from the University of California, Davis, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). In 2014, she won the Outstanding Teacher's Assistant Award given by the graduate divisions at UCSC.