Faculty
Ian Chapman
Lecturer

Ian Chapman received his PhD in Chinese history from Princeton University in 2007. Prior to this he studied Chinese literature, history and philology at Fudan University (Shanghai). In 2007-08 he was an An Wang post-doctoral fellow and lecturer at Harvard University.

Research interests include popular ritual and religion, local social organization, and identity construction in medieval China. His teaching explores aspects of the cultural, social, and political histories of pre-modern and modern China and East Asia. He is currently writing a book—developed from his dissertation, “Carnival Canons: Calendars, Genealogy, and the Search for Ritual Cohesion in Medieval China”—on the role of popular festivals in constructing imperial, regional and sectarian identities in 3rd to 8th century China. A second project concerns local devotional and welfare societies in northwest China between the 8th and the 11th centuries.