Nancy Yu

Nancy Yu grew up in Shanghai, China and has lived in the United States since she was 16. She is passionate about political theory, U.S.-China relations, and China’s contemporary political transformations. At Georgetown Law, she intends to study international law, comparative constitutional law, and international business law.

Yu studied government and philosophy at Georgetown University and graduated magna cum laude in 2022. In college, she became intrigued in the relations between religion and politics through her participation in a local Christian church. She pursued this interest with her senior thesis, in which she analyzed the connection between liberalism and puritanism in American political thought through a close reading of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and John Winthrop’s theological writings. Her thesis—“The Puritan Origin Reconsidered”—was awarded honors with distinction in the Government Department.

After graduation, Yu researched China’s intellectual history and the cultural origins of the communist regime at the Hudson Institute with senior fellow Eric Brown. Later, Yu worked as a research assistant at the Center for Strategic Translation, a D.C. based think tank that translates and analyzes Chinese-language documents for American analysts and policymakers. In her spare time, she published articles in ChinaTalk—a China-focused media platform—on topics such as the torturous history of the rule of law in China, China’s industrial policy debates, and China’s A.I. development and policies.

Yu studied Spanish in college. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, attending reading groups, acrylic painting, and catching up with friends.