RESEARCH INTERESTS
Classical Chinese Literature, Early Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama,
Women’s Writings, Buddhism, Confucianism, Representations of the Supernatural
EDUCATION
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
PhD, Chinese Languages and Literature, expected July 2019
Dissertation: “Apparitions and Angst: Literary Portraits of Late Nineteenth Century China”
Advisors: Beata Grant, Robert E. Hegel
Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
MA, Chinese Language and Literature, 2012
Thesis: “The Bodhisattva and the Demoness: Qing Adaptations of the White Snake Story”
Advisor: Beata Grant
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
BA, English Language and Literature, 2010
Thesis: “Modern Chinese Women Writers: The Making of a Female Tradition”
Advisor: Chen Yongguo
OTHER PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Washington University in St. Louis Teaching Center, St. Louis, MO
Certified Participant, “(Re)Thinking Annotation: Digital Practices for Collaboration and Communication” Professional Development Workshop, October 2015
Wooden Fish Foundation and Putuo Buddhist College, Putuo, China
Fellow, Buddhism in China: Guanyin Workshop, Summer 2013
Advisor: Chün-fang Yu
The Salzburg Seminar, Salzburg, Austria
Fellow, The Salzburg Global Academy on Media Literacy, Summer 2008
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2018-2019 Stillman Drake Fund for Faculty Development
2017-2018 Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship
2017 Honorable Mention of Dean Award for Teaching Excellence
2017 Graduate School of Arts & Science Dissertation Travel Funding
2016 EALC Department Summer Funding for Dissertation Research in Beijing
2012-2013 Graduate School of Arts & Science Doctoral Fellowship
2007-2009 Tsinghua University Annual Scholarship
2008 Omnicom Scholarship for Outstanding Student in Cross-cultural Communications
2008 Li & Fung Scholarship for Excellent Exchange Student
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“The Bodhisattva and the Demoness: Guanyin in Qing Adaptations of the White Snake Story,” Journal of Chinese Religious Studies (acceptance with revision).
“Objects Old and New: Late Nineteenth Century Tales of Material Obsessions,” panel on “Knowledge of Exotica: Writing the Other and Placing the Self in Early Modern China,” 2018 AAS Conference, Washington, D.C., 2018.3.23.
“Crisis, Community, and Caricatures: Portrayals of The Public Life in Late 19th Century Literati Storytelling,” panel on “Public Culture in Early Modern China”, 4th AAS-in-Asia Conference 2017, Seoul, Korea, 2017.6.25.
“Ethnic Witches and Tiny Foreigners: Imagining the Qing territory in Late Nineteenth Century Literati Storytelling,” panel on “Fiction and Politics in Modern East Asia”, 26th Annual Graduate Student Conference on East Asian at Columbia University, New York, NY, 2017.2.24.
“Fantastic Travel, Ethnic Witches and Tiny Foreigners: Imagining the Qing territory in Late Nineteenth Century Literati Storytelling,” panel on “Literature, the State, and the Political Imagination”, 20th Annual Harvard East Asia Society Conference 2017: Roads through Asia, Boston, MA, 2017.2.25.
“Commemorating the Trivial and the Marginalized: Unpacking the Satirical Eulogies in the Ming Novel Qiantang huiying Jidian Chanshi yulu 錢塘湖隱濟顛禪師語錄”, panel on “Death, Mourning and the Afterlife in Chinese Narratives of the Late Imperial Era,” 2016 The Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Harrisonburg, VA, 2016.1. 15-17.
“The Bodhisattva and the Demoness: Guanyin in the Tale of the White Snake”, panel on “Gender and Religion in Late Imperial Chinese Narratives,” 2015 Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, St. Louis, MO, 2015.10.16-18.
“Qing Adaptations of the White Snake Story”, panel on “Chinese literature before 1900”, 2015 Rocky Mountain Modern Languages Association, Santa Fe, NM, 2015.10.9.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
“Guanyin in the Tale of the White Snake”, paper presented at the International Guanyin Seminar, Singapore, 2015.4.4.
LANGUAGES
Mandarin (Native), Classical Chinese (Advanced),
German (Reading), Japanese (Introductory)
WEI Li 魏励 