AAPI Keynote Speaker: Dr. Michael Chwe
Tuscaloosa native Dr. Michael Chwe is this year’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month speaker at The University of Alabama. Chwe, an author and professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches courses on game theory, will address this year’s theme of Advancing Leaders Through Collaboration and inform attendees on AAPI Month, the history of the Tuscaloosa Asian community, and how we can advance leaders through collaboration.
Chwe (pronounced like chess without the ss) studies how people coordinate their actions when each person wants to participate only if enough others do. He finds that, while coordination sometimes occurs through evolution or adaptation, more often it is the result of explicit communication. Chwe’s recent papers, including Communication and Coordination in Social Networks, Structure and Strategy in Collective Action and Strategic Reliability of Communication Networks, investigate how communication networks can resolve coordination problems. His most recent book, “Jane Austen: Game Theorist” finds common ground between the study of people’s choices and writing of the early 19th-century English novelist. Other areas of interest include jury decision making and television advertising. Chwe has served on the faculty of the University of Chicago and New York University.