The History Department congratulates Prof. Xiaofei Gao for winning the prestigious American Council of Learned Societies Luce Early Career Fellowship in China Studies.  This highly-selective fellowship provides an invaluable opportunity for early-career scholars to dedicate a full year to researching and writing their first book.  With just ten long-term awards drawn from a large pool of applicants from the US, Canada, and Europe, the Luce Early Career Fellowship supports innovative work in the study of Chinese history and culture.  The President of the American Council of Learned Societies [ACLS], Joy Connolly explains the purpose of this fellowship: “At a time when tense relations between China and the United States dominate the headlines, we believe that scholarship, which helps bring people together by freely sharing knowledge, is more important than ever.”

Professor Gao’s project reflects the ACLS’s values of transnational scholarly exchange and learning.  Titled “The Blue Revolution: Maritime Connections and Coastal Communities in Modern China, 1910-2010,” Professor Gao examines how coastal communities in Northeastern China adapted to major political, economic, and environmental changes over the course of the twentieth century.  In lieu of examining this history from the land-based perspectives of major powers that contended in the region, from the Japanese Empire to the Soviets to the Chinese Communist Party, Dr. Gao centers her study on the lives and agency of maritime communities. 

This fellowship will allow Professor Gao to travel to China to continue research for her project, which involves consulting records in local, regional, and national archives and libraries.  She will also follow up with interviewees whose oral histories form an important component of her project.  Many congratulations to Prof. Gao!