Rate My Professor John Herman

John Herman is an Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Washington and a B.A. in History from the University of Oregon. His research interests focus on Late Imperial Chinese history (900-1800), in particular Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1636-1912) history, frontiers and border regions, ethnohistory, economic and environmental history, colonial discourse studies, and historical sociology. His current work focuses on Wu Sangui (1612-78) and the Ming-Qing Interregnum. Herman teaches courses including Survey of East Asian Civilizations, Late Imperial China, Modern China, Modern Japan, Rise of the Chinese Communist Party, Contemporary China, and Historiography & Methodology. He serves as Program Director for the American Studies Program: China.

In 2007, he published Amid the Clouds and Mist: China’s Colonization of Guizhou, 1200-1700 (Harvard University Press). Key articles include “Han Expansion to the South” in Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies (2019), “From Land Reclamation to Land Grab: Settler Colonialism in Southwest China, 1680-1735” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (2018), “Empire and Historiography in Southwest China” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (2018), “Decentering Chinese History” in Journal of Chinese History (2017), “Collaboration and Resistance on the Southwest Frontier: Early 18th Century Qing Expansion on Two Fronts” in Late Imperial China (2014), and “The Kingdoms of Nanzhong: China’s Southwest Border Region Prior to the Eighth Century” in T’oung Pao (2009). Herman has held fellowships including Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2010-11); Associate Member, East Asia Center, University of Virginia (2008-present); An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University (1997-98); Research Fellowship, Committee on Scholarly Communication with China (1998-99); and Research Fellowship, Pacific Cultural Foundation, Taipei (1995-96). He is affiliated with the Association for Asian Studies and American Historical Association.