T. J. Pempel

Who is T. J. Pempel?

T. J. Pempel is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty in July 2001 and was also the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies from January 2002 until 2007. He held the Il Han New Chair in Asian Studies from 2001-2007.

Pempel was born on December 15, 1942 in Valley Stream, New York. He attended Catholic grammar school and high school, graduating magna cum laude in 1960 from Saint Agnes Cathedral High School in Rockville Centre, New York. He enlisted immediately in the U.S. Marine Corps where he served for four years. Upon his honorable discharge in 1964 he entered Columbia University graduating cum laude with honors in Government in 1966. He continued at Columbia and received his M.A. in 1968 and his Ph.D. in Political Science and East Asian Studies in 1972. During this time he was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement as a member of Vets for Peace and a founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He also ran a district office for Eugene McCarthy's Presidential campaign in 1968.

From 1972 to 1991, he was on the faculty at Cornell University; he was also Director of Cornell's East Asia Program. Additionally, he has been a faculty member at the University of Colorado and the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was Glen B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science. Just prior to coming to Berkeley, he held the Boeing Professorship of International Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies and was an adjunct professor in Political Science at the University of Washington in Seattle.