Participant Info

First Name
Kate
Last Name
Merkel-Hess
Country
United States
State
PA Pennsylvania
Affiliation
Pennsylvania State University
Website URL
http://history.psu.edu/directory/kxm81
Keywords
women, gender, politics, nationalism, World War II, Pacific War, rural, warlords, revolution
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am an Associate Professor of History at Penn State University. I wrote The Rural Modern: Reconstructing the Self and State in Republican China (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and co-edited (with Jeff Wasserstrom and Ken Pomeranz) China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). I was the founding editor of the China Beat blog and now serve as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Asian Studies. I have published in both scholarly and general interest venues, including The Times Literary Supplement, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Current History, ChinaFile, and the Journal of Social History. I am currently working on a book, Women and Their Warlords, which re-examines warlordism and nation building in China between the 1910s and the 1950s through the lens of elite gender relations and the political role of powerful women.

Recent Publications

“We’re a Long Way from 2008,” ChinaFile, August 7, 2018.

The Rural Modern: Reconstructing the Self and State in Republican China (The University of Chicago Press, 2016).

“A New Woman and Her Warlord: Li Dequan, Feng Yuxiang, and the Politics of Intimacy in Twentieth Century China,” Frontiers of History in China, 11.3 (2016): 431-457.

“The Public Health of Village Private Life: Reform and Resistance in Early Twentieth Century China,” Journal of Social History, 49.4 (Summer 2016): 881-903.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
China
Expertise by Geography
Asia, China, East Asia
Expertise by Chronology
Modern
Expertise by Topic
Family, Gender, Local & Regional, Military, Politics, Rebellion & Revolution, Rural & Agrarian History, Women, World War II