Department Faculty

"I am an intellectual historian of Warring States and early imperial China (500 BC to 200 AD). I am interested in the religions, philosophies, and political ideas that were born and flourished during this time, many of which went on to prominence in the intellectual discourses throughout East Asia for the next two thousand years. I have written a book concerning ancient Chinese views of the self (Individualism in Early China: Human Agency and the Self in Thought and Politics), which examines a variety of important authors from early China in terms of their views on individual power and authority. Currently, I am completing a book called Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of “Harmony” in Early China. This book highlights various aspects of music in relationship to changes in cosmology and the development of centralized states in ancient China. Another research project of mine analyzes Yue (Viet) ethnicity in the early history of China's southern frontier. This latter project has gotten me involved in the early history of Vietnam as well as the regions of Canton and Fujian in modern-day southern China. Such a topic has necessitated that I make use of the archaeological record as well as the textual record with which I usually work. As a teacher I enjoy introducing students to the wide world of Asian history and religions, and I especially like leading class discussions on Chinese identity and frontier history, ideas of ethnicity and gender, and the nature of science, religion, and the body as reflected in pre-modern Chinese writings."