Taeku and Shirley Lee named faculty deans of Dunster House

Taeku and Shirley Lee have been named the new faculty deans of Dunster House, Danoff Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana announced Wednesday. They will begin their roles July 1.

Taeku is the Bae Family Professor of Government at Harvard University, having joined the University in 2022 as part of the ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration cluster hire in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). He is also president of the American Political Science Association. Shirley has long worked in education, focused extensively on K–12.

“I am so grateful to Taeku and Shirley for taking on the role of faculty deans at Dunster,” Khurana said. “And I am thrilled for our students to have such wonderful and caring leaders for their community.”

Taeku earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Shirley earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s from the Teachers College at Columbia University. Additionally, she completed two years of a Ph.D. program at the University of California, Irvine in East Asian Studies.

The Korean-born Taeku grew up in Malaysia, Manhattan, and suburban Michigan. He has authored several books, dozens of articles and scholarly publications, and essays. Prior to joining the FAS faculty, Taeku taught at the University of California, Berkeley. His teaching and research focus on racial and ethnic politics, public opinion and survey research, identity and inequality, and democratic politics, broadly.

Shirley’s teaching career began in a mathematics classroom, first in Harlem, then in Cambridge. Much of her K-12 education and research has been aimed at understanding how young adults learn and make sense of the world around them.

“We are truly honored to be appointed co-faculty deans of Dunster House. The House system is so special at Harvard, and Dunster is such a lovely community. We are overjoyed by this opportunity to be a part it all,” they said.

In his message to the Dunster community, Khurana also thanked current faculty deans Sean Kelly and Cheryl Chen for their “unwavering devotion to making every student and staff member feel at home.”

The Lees are the proud parents of Ella Jaeyoung Lee, a recent college graduate, and Linus Jaejun Lee, a current college senior.