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Howard Chiang

Education

  • Ph.D., History, Princeton University, 2012
  • M.A., History, Princeton University, 2008
  • M.A., Quantitative Social Science, Columbia University, 2006
  • B.S., Biochemistry, University of Southern California, 2005
  • B.A., Psychology, University of Southern California, 2005

About

Born in Taiwan and raised in Canada, Professor Howard Chiang joined the faculty of UC Davis in 2017. His book, After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China, was published by Columbia University Press in 2018 and received the 2019 International Convention of Asia Scholars Humanities Book Prize. It analyzes the history of sex change in China from the demise of castration in the late Qing era to the emergence of transsexuality in Cold War Taiwan. A new monograph, Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific, is near completion. Drawing on a range of sources in medical science, journalism, film, social activism, and law, this study develops a continuum model for anti-transphobic inquiry and introduces the specter of the Chinese empire to the historicization of transgender experience.

Chiang has begun working on two new projects: one on the history of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and mental health in transpacific Sinophone culture and a second on the intellectual legacy of Michel Foucault in the cognitive revolution. He currently serves as the Chair of the Society of Sinophone Studies. Prior to coming to UC Davis, he taught at the University of Warwick in England and the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Research Focus

Professor Chiang’s research focuses on the history of modern China and global Sinophone cultures, with an emphasis on the critical studies of science, medicine, gender, and sexuality. His research has been supported by Academia Sinica, the British Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science and Technology in East Asia, the Tang Prize Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. His work has helped shape the fields of transgender Asian history, queer Sinophone studies, and the historical epistemology of East Asian medicine.

Selected Publications

Chiang, H. (Under contract). Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific. New York: Columbia University Press.

Chiang H., Bachner, A., & Lee, Y. L. (Eds.). (Under contract). Sinoglossia. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Chiang, H., & Wong, A. K. (Eds.). (Under contract). Keywords in Queer Sinophone Studies. London: Routledge.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2019). The Making of the Human Sciences in China: Historical and Conceptual Foundations. Leiden: Brill.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2019). Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History (3 vols). Farmington Hills: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Chiang, H. (2018). After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2018). Sexuality in China: Histories of Power and Pleasure. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Chiang, H., & Wang, Y. (Eds.). (2016). Perverse Taiwan. London: Routledge.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2015). Historical Epistemology and the Making of Modern Chinese Medicine. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2014). Psychiatry and Chinese History. London: Pickering & Chatto.

Chiang, H., & Heinrich, A. L. (Eds.). (2013). Queer Sinophone Cultures. London: Routledge.

Chiang, H. (Ed.). (2012). Transgender China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Teaching

Sex, Science, and Society: A Global History (HIS/STS 16); Undergraduate Proseminar in the History of Sexuality in Modern China (HIS 102H); Themes in World History (HIS 110); The Rise of Modern Science in China (HIS 135B); The Chinese Revolution (HIS 191E); History of the People's Republic of China (HIS 191F); Special Topics in Chinese History After 1800 (HIS 191H); Cross-Cultural Women's and Gender History: Global Intimacies (HIS 201Q).

Awards

Best Book in the Humanities Prize (Biennual), International Convention of Asia Scholars, 2019

Yu Ying-shih Award in Humanities Research (Monographic Book Category), Academia Sinica and Tang Prize Foundation, 2018

Canada Research Chair (Tier II) Nomination, Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo, 2016

Young Scholar Award Finalist, European Association for Chinese Studies, 2016

Gregory Sprague Prize for Outstanding Article, Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History, American Historical Association, 2010

John C. Burnham Early Career Award, Forum for the History of Human Science, History of Science Society, 2007

Steven and Kathryn Sample Renaissance Scholar Endowment, University of Southern California, 2005