Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture
The Annual Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture 2021-2022
The Annual Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture welcomes Tim Brook, History, University of British Columbia. He spoke on Government for the People: Troubling Legacies of the Confucian Statecraft Tradition.
History and Background
On the 100th anniversary of the world-changing philosopher and statesman’s graduation from Cornell, EAP initiated an annual distinguished lecture in honor of Hu Shih. Leading scholars of Chinese and East Asian studies are invited to give a lecture on critical issues in their field of research. These lectures are archived as a resource for the Cornell community and beyond.
- Hu Shih Distinguished lecture videos and programs are also permanently archived in the Cornell eCommons archive.
Past Hu Shih Distinguished Lectures
- 2020-2021 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Meir Shahar
Chinese Animal Gods
Shoul N. Eisenberg Chair for East Asian Affairs, Tel Aviv University - 2019-2020 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Dorothy Ko
Gender and Material Culture: The Female Artisan Gu Erniang and the Craft of Inkstone-Making in Early Modern China
Professor of History, Department of History, Department of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College - 2018-2019 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Victor Mair
An Important Dunhuang Manuscript Formerly in the Possession of Hu Shih: Transformation Text on the Subduing of Demons
Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania - 2017-2018 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Steven Sangren
Filial Piety and Its Discontents
Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University - 2016-2017 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Francesca Bray
Hail the Maintainers: Rethinking Technology in Chinese History
Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, and President of the international Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) - 2015-2016 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Evelyn Rawski
Moving from Nation to Region: China in Northeast Asian History
Distinguished University Professor, Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh - 2014-2015 Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture - Benjamin Elman
The Great Reversal: China, Korea, and Japan in the Early Modern World
Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University
Hu Shih, the Greatest Cornellian
Sherman Cochran, the Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History, emeritus, presented the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative's inaugural lecture on November 20, 2015, making the case for Hu Shih '14, as the "greatest Cornellian." Cochran framed his lecture as a comparison between Hu Shih and other Cornell graduates: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg '54, novelist Thomas Pynchon '59, and professional football player and actor Ed Marinaro '72. Read more about the event.