Nancy Abelmann

Nancy Abelmann (April 24, 1959 – January, 6, 2016) was an American anthropologist and Harry E. Preble Professor of anthropology, Asian American studies, and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. where she'd also served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research from 2009-2016, and as Director of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies from 2005 to 2008. 
Education and Research.
Nancy earned a bachelors degree in East Asian Studies at Harvard University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from University of California, Berkeley. An anthropologist of Korea and of Korean Americans, she studied transnational and urban studies, film studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, education, and gender studies. Her work, along with John Lie, Kathleen McHugh, Jung-ah Choi and So Jin Park, helped energize and shape Korean studies and Asian American studies over the past two decades. 
Nancy was instrumental in the development of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as creating the Ethnography of the University Initiative with Peter Mortensen and Bill Kelleher. Unusually for an adult language-learner, she achieved near-native fluency in both Japanese and Korean.
From 2012-2014, she served as the President of the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology.