Arielle Emmett, Ph.D., is a writer, visual journalist and traveling scholar specializing in East Asia, science writing, and human interest. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Scholar grant to study the Chinese impact on infrastructure, labor and human rights in Kenya (2018-2019), where she taught research and legal writing at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi. Emmett was granted a 2015 Fulbright Specialist fellowship, teaching visual media, journalism history and online journalism curriculum at Universitas Padjadjaran, West Java, Indonesia. She has been a contributing editor to Smithsonian Air & Space magazine covering the James Webb telescope, Chinese presence in aviation and aerospace, women in flight, and “green” aviation technologies.
In 2013 Emmett taught online graduate journalism as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong. After graduating with her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, she joined the faculty at Univ. of Colorado Denver in Beijing, teaching culture and communication at International College Beijing.
A Mandarin and French speaker, Emmett has been a professional journalist and teacher since beginning her career as a correspondent for Newsweek in the 1970s. Her articles have appeared in dozens of magazines and journals, including Smithsonian.com, Mother Jones, Washington Times, Caixin (Beijing), Boston Globe, Toronto Globe & Mail, Detroit Free Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ms., OMNI, Parents., Saturday Review, Computer World, Visual Communication Quarterly, and American Journalism Review, among many others.
Arielle’ first novel, The Logoharp: a Cyborg Novel of China and America in the Year 2121 (Leaping Tiger Press, 2024), was named Silver Winner for Science Fiction in the Nautilus Book Awards 2025. The novel also earned four other awards and citations, including the American Fiction Awards 2024 Finalist in Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk, a LIterary Titan Gold Book, and an Editor’s Pick and Editor’s Choice at Publishers Weekly Booklife and The Reader’s House (UK, 2025). Her blog on Asia and African affairs appears at www.arielleemmett.com/category/blog.
SubjectsAviation and Aerospace, China and Taiwan, engineering and medical technology, IT, health and fitness, investigative science reporting, nature and the environment.
Skills
Writing Creditssee www.arielleemmett.com
Published in: Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Air & Space, American Journalism Review, Visual Communication Quarterly, Earth, Eastern Digest, Caixin (Beijing), The Scientist, Real Science, MIT Technology Review, America’s Network, Wall St. Journal Market Watch, IDC Government, Computer World, InformationWeek, The New York Times, The Detroit Free Press, OMNI, MS., Parents, Physicians’ Management, Saturday Review, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Washington Times, Oakland Tribune, IEEE Spectrum, Good Times, Cardiology Emergency Decisions, Nursing, Globe and Mail (Canada).
Book Credits
Awards, Honors, AppointmentsASJA Annual Writing Competition 2021 “Social Change” for articles in Smithsonian Air & Space on Women Pilots (“What are US Airlines Missing? Women Pilots” September 2020. (Women Pilots)
Fulbright Specialist, Indonesia 2015.
Fulbright Scholar, Kenya (2018-2019), investigating the Chinese impact on Kenya’s infrastructure development, labor and human rights.
Sigma Delta Chi Award (Washington State), Investigation of Mt. St. Helens disaster 1981
As author, unless indicated otherwise.
Gender inequity in commercial flying; aviation education.
ReadInvestigation of ocular melanoma (eye cancer) clusters in Lake Norman, NC. Implications of the environment and interviews with researchers, public health officials, and victims.
Collection of articles by Arielle Emmett for Smithsonian Air & Space
Op/Ed on China and Taiwan's fraught relationship and the "One China" policy.
On-site investigation of How Indonesia is coping with natural disasters with technology and earth warning systems (tsunami, earthquake, floods, fires).
Chinese investment in East African infrastructure projects both stimulate and distract from Kenya’s urgent need for social justice and economic reform. This chapter uses qualitative interviews with a range of Kenyans and Chinese to describe the impact of two infrastructure projects conceived as “game changers” – the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the LAPSSET Corridor originating in Lamu on Kenya’s southeast coast. Using data collected during 2018-2019, I show how Kenyans and Chinese assess the benefits and negatives of these infrastructure projects based on labor impacts, divergent perceptions of time, time management, and investment payback.
