Fellow Highlights

NOT ON MY RESUME: Ming Hsu Chen

January 8, 2026

Ming Hsu Chen is a professor of law and faculty-director of the Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality Program at UC Law San Francisco. She teaches courses in constitutional law, legislation and administrative regulation, citizenship, and immigration. She is the author of Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era (Stanford University Press 2020) and she serves as co-editor for the Immigration Prof blog and the executive committee for the AALS Immigration Section and the Law and Society Association’s Citizenship and Migration Section. The PD Soros Fellowship supported Ming’s JD at New York University in 2001.

Why did you (or your family) come to America? My parents migrated twice—from China to Taiwan, then Taiwan to the US—in search of peace, professional opportunities, and a better future… same as for most immigrants!

Which living New American do you most admire? Yo Yo Ma. His talent, compassion, and creativity generate universal appreciation in addition to paricular pride from the Asian and immigrant community. Also, my college roommate once taught his kids bible study and said they’re a really nice family!

What is your current state of mind? Anxious and hoping that America, as a country, reaches its “Selma” moment soon so that we can begin to repair the frayed fabric of our nation.

When was the last time you felt imposter syndrome? My 25th Harvard College reunion… and also each year that the new class of PD Soros Fellows is revealed! (Truly, I feel like I got away with something.)

What is your greatest fear? A health scare that required I calculate my survival outcomes renewed my commitment to not miss my daughter’s milestones. (I’ve recovered now.)

If you could change careers and do anything, what would it be? For the most part, I would not change much. Maybe instead of being a professor, I would be a lifelong student and relish being well rounded instead of pointy.

What is your idea of a good life? Engaging in work so fulfilling that you’d do it without pay, and then coming home to a family that appreciates you without regard to what you did during the day.

What is the one habit that you can’t live without? Writing in the margins of books printed on paper.

What one piece of advice do you live by? “Immigrants get the job done.” Lyrics from Lin Manuel Miranda’s “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” and then remixed for The Hamilton Mixtape, in tribute to the many contributions of “America’s ghost writers.”

Who or what makes your heart beat faster when you think about them? Overcoming a serious illness changes you. These days, I’m trying to slow down rather than speed up!

This interview was originally published in the December 2025 issue of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships’ monthly Distance Traveled newsletter. Sign up to receive the latest issue here. ∎