Axl Cheng joins the AM program in regional studies of the Middle East in 2023. She holds a BA from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies and computer science. At CMES, she plans to study Islam and Muslim communities in China at the intersection of religiosity and ethnicity. She is interested in Islamic history in late imperial China especially in the Qing period. She is also passionate about conducting anthropological work and oral history with Hui and Uyghur Muslims. Additionally, she is interested in the contemporary China-ME relations. At Harvard, Axl will continue learning Arabic and plans to start learning the Uyghur language.