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Home > Graduate Studies > Areas of Graduate Study : East Asian History

East Asian History

Zhiguo Ye: The University of Minnesota has one of the best graduate programs in East Asian history in North America. It is especially strong on the early modern and modern Chinese and Japanese history. The faculty with diverse research interests encourages students to explore a wide range of historical questions. I particularly appreciate the individual guidance and direction available throughout my entire graduate study. Research seminars can be tailored to accommodate students’ research needs. Valuable opportunities and resource are available for the collaboration between students and professors. My first archival research trip to China was funded by the GRPP grant, which allowed me to work closely with my advisor who supported with her expertise and archival research methods. The program has built a strong connection with related departments (Asian languages and literatures, Sociology, Political Science, and so on) and taken advantage of growing programs and resources on Asia at the University of Minnesota, which is home to  a fast growing East Asian library, the China Center, and the Confucius Institute. As a Chinese, I also enjoy living in Minneapolis, a diverse city with a sizable Asian community.

The study and teaching of East Asian history has undergone tremendous expansion and change in the past decade, reflecting the region’s growing global significance. The historiography of East Asia is similarly undergoing great change and taking on importance well beyond the field.

The East Asia faculty at the University of Minnesota have diverse historiographical interests and strengths. The work of our faculty and the training we provide to our graduate students emphasize both attentive archival work and engagement with ongoing debates in our field.

We have large number of students from China and Taiwan who work closely with faculty. Many of our graduate students have received GRPP grants that provide summer funding to work jointly with faculty members on research papers. 

Our East Asia library has a growing collection. Through a consortium with other Big Ten schools we have access to tens of thousands of volumes via interlibrary loan.

The China Center also offers potential resources to students.

Participating Faculty

  • Ann Waltner writes on the social history of sixteenth and seventeenth century China, with special interest in gender, kinship and religion. She is also active in the field of world history. 
  • Liping Wang studies cultural, social and political history of twentieth-century and Qing China. Her research focuses is urban and intellectual history.
  • Hiromi Mizuno studies the intellectual, cultural and political history of twentieth-century Japan. Her interests focus on questions of modernity, nationalism, colonialism, gender, science and technology, and popular culture.
  • Mai Na Lee Mai Na Lee is an Assistant Professor of History and Asian American Studies. She is a specialist of Southeast Asia and does research on the Hmong in Southeast Asia and in the diasporas. She pursues questions related to empire, revolution, nationalism, and ethnic identity and politics (citizenship) within and across the borders of modern nation-states.
  • Christopher Isett focuses on eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century China and comparative economic history. He works on the economy, social change, peasants and village politics, legal change and customary law, merchant organizations, nutrition and wellbeing. He has extensive archival experience in China and works internationally with scholars in Japan, China, and Taiwan.

Affiliated Faculty

 

Graduate Features

Graduate Studies
Rachel Ayers
1130 Heller Hall
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-624-5840
Email: histdgs@umn.edu

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