SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Rethinking Sino-European Comparative History

Abstract

In this presentation Dr. De Weerdt discusses the representation of Chinese History in comparative studies of pre-eighteenth-century empires. After a critical overview of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary trends, she will focus on three methodological problems in the comparative history, historical sociology, and political science of pre-industrial empires.

Speaker Biography

Hilde De Weerdt teaches Chinese and comparative history at King’s College London. Her past and current research focuses on imperial Chinese political culture, information technologies, social networks, and intellectual history. Her publications include Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (1127-1276) (Harvard University Asia Center, 2007) and Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print--China, Tenth-Fourteenth Centuries (with Lucille Chia, Brill, 2011).