Benjamin A. Elman (born 1946) is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

. His teaching and research fields include

Chinese intellectual The current status of Chinese intellectuals reflects traditions established in the imperial period. For most of this period, government officials were selected from among the literati on the basis of the Confucian civil service examination system. ...

and cultural history, history of science and history of education in late imperial China.Elman, Benjamin A.

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Academic career

Elman earned his B.A. from

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, followi ...

in 1968. He was in the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

in Thailand, 1968 - 71 serving as provincial zone office and field supervisor for the Thailand National Malaria Eradication Project in Nakhon Sawan, Uthaitani, Chainat, Kamphaengphet, and Tak provinces along Burmese border. The Peace Corps provided instruction in Thai language and in epidemiological procedures. Upon leaving the Peace Corps, he was with the New York State Department of Public Health, 1972.Curriculum Vitae
/ref> Elman earned a

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from American University, Washington in 1972 - 73. Enrolled in M.A. Program in Area Studies: Modern China. He studied in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

through the Inter— University Center for Chinese, in the academic year 1973–74, then the Inter–University Center for Japanese, Tokyo, Japan 1977–78. He received his Ph.D. in Oriental Studies from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

(1980), studying with

Nathan Sivin Nathan Sivin (11 May 1931 – 24 June 2022), also known as Xiwen (), was an American sinologist, historian, essayist, educator, and writer. He taught first at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the University of Pennsylvania until his r ...

and Susan Naquin. He was Ziskind Lecturer, a short term position, in East Asia Studies at

Colby College Colby College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the ...

, Waterville, Maine, 1980–82; University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 1984– 85; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1985–86. From 1986-2002 he was Associate Professor and full Professor,

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

. From 1999 to 2001 he was the Mellon Visiting Professor in Traditional Chinese Civilization at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

. He joined the Princeton faculty in 2002. In 2011 he delivered the Edwin O. Reischauer Lectures at Harvard.

Major publications and research interests

* * * with Alexander Woodside, ed., * * * *

Reference and further reading

* * Peter Perdue, (review) A Cultural History of Modern Science in Late Imperial China (2006)

Interview
Princeton University, Department of History.

Notes

External links

Princeton Department of History

Curriculum Vitae
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elman, Benjamin A. 1946 births Living people 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American sinologists Princeton University faculty Hamilton College (New York) alumni American University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Peace Corps volunteers American expatriates in Thailand American expatriates in Taiwan American expatriates in Japan 21st-century American male writers