Position Title
Associate Professor Department of History
Born in Taiwan and raised in Canada, Professor Howard Chiang joined the faculty of UC Davis in 2017. He has written two 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. It received the 2019 International Convention of Asia Scholars Humanities Book Prize and the 2020 Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. 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, which was awarded the 2020 Dartmouth Medal by the American Library Association.
Chiang's current work centers on the historical and conceptual foundations of the human sciences, especially psychoanalysis, cultural psychiatry, and racial science. One major project explores the history of psychoanalysis and transcultural reasoning across the Pacific, and another rethinks the intellectual legacies of Michel Foucault in the cognitive revolution. He coedits (with James Welker) the "Global Queer Asias" book series published by the University of Michigan Press. Since 2019, he has served as the Founding 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.
Chiang is affiliated with the East Asian Studies, Science & Technology Studies, Cultural Studies, and Feminist Theory & Research programs on campus.
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 scholarship has been supported by Academia Sinica, British Arts and Humanities Research Council, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, D. Kim Foundation, National Humanities Center, Tang Prize Foundation, and Wellcome Trust. His work has contributed to advancing the fields of transgender history, Sinophone studies, and the historical epistemology of East Asian medicine.
Selected Publications
Chiang, H. (2021). Transtopia in the Sinophone Pacific. New York: Columbia University Press.
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.
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
East Asian Civilization: China (HIS 9A); 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); Global Freud: Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Unconscious (HIS 135B); 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); Sources and General Literature of History: Modern China (HIS 201G); History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Modern China (HIS 201S); Cross-Cultural Women's and Gender History: Global Intimacies (HIS 201Q); Global Sexualities: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives (HIS 201X/CST 204); Major Issues in Historical Interpretation: China (202F).
Awards
Henry Luce Fellowship, National Humanities Center, 2021–2022
Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, 2020
Dartmouth Medal for Excellence in Reference, Reference and User Services Association, American Library Association, 2020
Best Book in the Humanities Prize (Biennial), International Convention of Asia Scholars, 2019
Yu Ying-shih Award in Humanities Research (Monographic Book Category), Academia Sinica and Tang Prize Foundation, 2018
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