Evelyn Rawski

Evelyn Rawski is Distinguished University Professor Emerita in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, where she joined as assistant professor in 1967, was promoted to associate professor in 1973, full professor in 1980, and University Professor in 1996. She has also served as Research Professor at the University Center for International Studies since 1988. Rawski received her B.A. with high honors in Economics from Cornell University in 1961, being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, an M.A. in East Asian Regional Studies from Radcliffe College in 1962, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1968. Proficient in Chinese, Japanese, French, Manchu, and Korean, her academic interests encompass borderlands in northeast Asia, Chinese economic history from 1600 to 1850, Chinese historiography, Qing imperial institutions, popular culture in late imperial China, ritual music and death rituals, education and literacy in Qing China, and cross-cultural interactions in East Asia.

Rawski's influential publications include Agricultural Change and the Peasant Economy of South China (Harvard University Press, 1972), Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China (University of Michigan Press, 1979), Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century co-authored with Susan Naquin (Yale University Press, 1987), The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions (University of California Press, 1998), Worshiping the Ancestors: Chinese Commemorative Portraits co-authored with Jan Stuart (Stanford University Press, 2001), and Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2015). She edited volumes such as Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (1985), Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China (1988), and China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795 (2005). Among her honors are predoctoral fellowships from Woodrow Wilson, National Defense Foreign Language, and Foreign Area programs; postdoctoral Guggenheim (1990), Woodrow Wilson Center (1992-93), and NEH (2006-07) fellowships; the Association for Asian Studies Buchanan Prize (2002); and the American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction. Rawski served as President of the Association for Asian Studies (1995-1996), chaired the ACLS/SSRC Joint Committee on Chinese Studies (1984-1987), and contributed to editorial boards including Ming Studies (1976-1986).

Professional Email: esrx@pitt.edu