His research focus is on intersections of nonlinear dynamics, acoustics of Asian musical instruments, and mathematical physics. He is currently interested in the tuning of the guqin and guzheng, and with high-frequency overtones of both spoken Chinese and Asian operatic singing. For fun, he writes high school-level physics competition problems and experiments.

His research focus is the comparative study of Islamic and Western political thought. His work has appeared in Journal of Religion, Perspectives on Political Science, American Political Thought, Iranian Studies, Interpretation, Review of Politics, Renaissance & Reformation, and Eurorient, as well as collected volumes. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include Islamic and Western political thought. His book (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press) is a comprehensive study of Leo Strauss's writings on Islamic political thought.

His research focuses on the intersection of religion and ecology in China. He has published six books including "China's Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future" (Columbia, 2017). He is noted worldwide as an expert in Daoism, China's indigenous religion. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, environmental science, U.S. studies, religious studies and philosophy. Miller has a B.A. (honors) in Chinese studies from Durham University, a B.A. (honors) and M.A.

Her primary focus in classroom instruction is to prepare students for real-life interaction with native speakers of Chinese. Her primary research interests include interactive instruction, comprehension-led learning, cross-cultural communication, teaching material development, and Chinese language teacher training. Miao has a M.A. in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages (TCSOL) from Northeast Normal University, China.

His archaeological work focuses on the southern Lake Chad Basin of Central Africa. His main research interests are in state formation processes in Africa, international cultural heritage management issues, the archaeological study of ethnicity and social boundaries, and African and global archaeogenetics. His most recent book is "Searching for Boko Haram: A History of Violence in Central Africa." His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include cultures and movements, anthropology and archaeology, and courses that connect to global health and environmental science. MacEachern has a B.A.

His research focuses on service provision in authoritarian regimes and the incentive structure of developing nations in providing social welfare benefits, as well as how individuals are impacted by and react to state narratives and ideology. His primary interest is in finding new ways of unlocking data to better understand individual-level outcomes in China. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include political economy, institutions and governance, and political science. MacDonald has a B.A. in history and an M.A. in East Asian studies from Stanford University, and an M.Phil and Ph.D.