About

Born in Taiwan and raised in Canada, Professor Howard Chiang joined the faculty of UC Davis in 2017. He has written two award-winning monographs on China, forming a duology of queer Asian Pacific history through the lens of knowledge production. After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China 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. Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific proposes a new paradigm for doing transgender history in which geopolitics assumes central importance. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, a landmark 3-volume reference compendium.

Chiang's current work centers on the historical and conceptual foundations of the human sciences, especially psychoanalysis, cultural psychiatry, and racial science. This will culminate in a book called Mind Hunters (under contract), which explores the history of psychoanalysis and transcultural reasoning across the Pacific. A podcast on this project is available here. He coedits (with James Welker) the "Global Queer Asias" book series published by the University of Michigan Press. His forthcoming title, Trans Without Borders (under contract), will appear in this series. An associate editor of Cultural History and Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, he also sits on the editorial boards of numerous book series and journals, including Gender & History, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, and Journal of Women's History.

Between 2019 and 2022, Chiang served as the Founding Chair of the Society of Sinophone Studies. An affiliate of the East Asian Studies, Science & Technology Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, and Feminist Theory & Research programs on campus, he convened the annual Liu Lecture in honor of KC Liu until 2023. Prior to coming to UC Davis, Chiang taught at New York University, 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, race, gender, and sexuality. Grants and fellowships from, among others, Academia Sinica, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Humanities Center, the Tang Prize Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust have funded his work. His writing has advanced the fields of transgender history, Sinophone studies, psychoanalysis, and the historical epistemology of East Asian science and medicine.

Publications

Bachner, A., Chiang, H., & Lee, Y.-L. (Eds.). (2023). Sinoglossia. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Chiang, H. (2021). Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific. New York: Columbia University Press. **Winner of the Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Studies, and Honorable Mention for the Alan Bray Memorial Book Award in LGBTQ Literary and Cultural Studies from the Modern Language Association.

Chiang, H. (Ed.) (2021). Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader. Amherst: Cambria Press.

Chiang, H., & Wong, A. K. (Eds.). (2020). 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. **Winner of the Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association.

Chiang, H. (2018). After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press. **Winner of the Best Book in the Humanities Prize from the International Convention of Asia Scholars and the Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.

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. **Translated into Mandarin Chinese as 历史认识论与现代中医的建构 (苏州: 苏州大学出版社, 2021).

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

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

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