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Zoe Shan Lin

She/They

Title

Assistant Professor of History

Department

History

Information

Current Courses

CRS Title Sec
HI144 Patterns in East Asian History, to 1600 A
HI254 Becoming China: From Heaven's Mandate to People's Republic A
HI343 Sense and Sensibility: Gender and Sexuality in Confucian China A
HI350 Ways of the Barbarians: Others and Selves in Pre-Nation China A

Zoe Shan Lin is a political and cultural historian of Middle Imperial China. Her current book project explores the politics and political culture of local governance in China during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Focusing on local officials as protagonists, it aims to uncover the humanized intricacies of how the state functioned. The research analyzes how these officials navigated and negotiated institutions and inter-bureaucratic relations to pursue both personal and public goals in their local jurisdictions. Moving beyond the conventional portrayal of the state as a singular, top-down entity, her study illuminates the vibrant interplay between individuals, collectives, and institutions that gave substance to the otherwise abstract state. On the side, she also explores epigraphic practices in imperial China.

Her teaching focuses on gender, material culture, and China’s engagement in cross-cultural interactions. She is also interested in reconstructing the historical narrative of China, examining it not as a linear growth and expansion of a civilization core, but as a historical process shaped by interactions among various peoples, cultural traditions, and identities in the land we now call China. Using China as a case study, her teaching aims to illustrate the interconnectedness of the pre-modern world and the internal complexity, diversity, and tension within what has often been perceived as a monolithic civilization.

Course Taught

  • HI 144  Patterns in East Asian History, to 1600
  • HI 252  Powerful Things: Art and Material Culture in Dynastic China
  • HI 254  Becoming China: A History to 1800
  • HI 343  Sense and Sensibility: Gender and Sexuality in Confucian China

 

Education

  • Ph.D., University of California, Davis
  • M.A., Peking University
  • B.A., Beijing Normal University

 

Publications

  • ”Navigating Networks: Personal Correspondence and Local Governance in Southern Song China, 1127–1279.” Journal of Chinese History 3, no. 1 (2019): 59–82.
  •  “Favoring Their Own: Grain Embargoes in Southern Song China.” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 46, no. 1 (2016): 169–208.