Hasta Colman

Hasta Colman is an America in the World Consortium Predoctoral Fellow. She joins UT Austin from the Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Most recently, she was a visiting Ph.D. student at Nanjing University while conducting fieldwork in China, Nepal, India, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Hasta’s research focuses on Chinese foreign policy in Asia, with a particular emphasis on nontraditional security issues, including cybercrime, illicit finance, and non-state armed groups. Her dissertation examines how China engages neighboring states through security cooperation that often diverges from conventional models. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, her research aims to deepen academic understanding while also contributing evidence-based insights for policymakers navigating U.S. engagement in Asia.

Hasta holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been a National Bureau of Asian Research Ph.D. Fellow at National Taiwan University, a Research Fellow at Fudan University, and a language student at Tsinghua University. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she spent nearly a decade working with grassroots NGOs across Asia.