Research

As a social and cultural historian of premodern China, I focus on the power of everyday interactions in shaping and reshaping individual identities, local communities, and broader cultures. My scholarship examines the high social stakes involved in the display of correct (or deviant) behaviors, values, objects, and worldviews; even in ostensibly low-stakes contexts like playing board games or making music in one's free time, the ways in which individuals presented themselves and were judged by others affected decisions of group inclusion or exclusion, granted or blocked access to potential opportunities and benefits, and affirmed or denied personal identities. Drawing upon multidisciplinary approaches and unconventional sources, my research revolves around the practices and processes of identity performance, social categorization, and social dictinction, and the roles they played in constituting the social world of premodern China.

My current book project explores a significant expansion in the repertory of ways in which one could enact an identity as a "gentleman" (shi 士) in 10th–14th century China. During these centuries, these educated and cultured members of the elite social stratum increasingly engaged in a wide variety of activities that were traditionally understood to be the domains of lower-status occupational specialists: painting, music, medicine, divination, fishing, gardening, and even playing board games. To distance themselves from lower-status specialists, "gentlemen" developed new discourses and strategies of social distinction based not on what they did, but rather how they did it – and often how they did it better. Ironically, I argue that this not only created new ways for elite men to enact identities as "gentlemen," but also opened new avenues of social mobility for lower-status occupational specialists who were able to practice their arts and activities in these new, "gentlemanly" ways.

Publications:

• “Recognizing 'Recluses' (yinshi 隱士) in 7th–14th Century China.” Chūgoku shigaku 中國史學 (Studies in Chinese History), v. 34 (2024), 1-34. (Freely available through the University of Michigan Deep Blue Repository.)

• “Groups on the Grid: Weiqi Cultures in Song-Yuan-Ming China.” In Games and Play in Chinese and Cultures, edited by Li Guo, Douglas Eyman, and Hongmei Sun, 23-39. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2024. (Freely available through open access.)