Mengqi “Mercy” An 安梦琪 researches literary responses to modernity from a transnational and multispecies perspective. Her dissertation, “Ecologizing Modernism: Writing with the Nonhuman in Manchuria, 1910–1945,” is scheduled for defense in May 2025. Through readings of Xiao Hong, Duanmu Hongliang, Nikolai Baikov, and others, she argues that Chinese xiangtu writers and Russian writer-naturalists in early 20th-century Manchuria engaged in interrelated ecocritical efforts to modernize literary form in order to explore, express, and forge ethical relations with the nonhuman world.

She has taught widely across Sinophone, Russophone, and Japanophone literatures and cultures. With a specialization in modern Chinese literature, she offers courses in Asian studies, comparative and world literature, and the environmental humanities. A strong advocate for language proficiency and multilingual learning, she also has keen interests in teaching Chinese language and college writing.