Max Gordon Oidtmann (born 1979) is an American historian of
Late Imperial China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the ...
(1368–1912) and
Inner Asia
Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North Asia, North, Central Asia, Central, and East Asia. It includes parts of Western China, western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some d ...
(Islamic
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
,
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
,
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
, and
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
). He also has interest in
modern China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
and the affairs of Chinese
ethnic minorities
The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...
. He was an assistant professor at
Georgetown University in Qatar
Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) is a campus of Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) in Education City, Doha, Qatar. It is one of Georgetown University's eleven undergraduate and graduate schools, and is supported by a partnership betwee ...
from 2013 to 2021. Oidtmann is currently a faculty member at the Institute for Sinology at
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
in Germany.
Education
He earned a B.A. in History (with concentration in
East Asian Studies
East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...
) at
Carleton College
Carleton College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1866, the main campus is between Northfield and the approximately Carleton ...
in 2001 and a M.A. degree in East Asian Regional Studies at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. In March 2014, Oidtmann received his Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University.
Academic position
He previously taught Asian History as well as specialized courses on the
History of China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the ...
, Islam and Muslims in East Asia, Tibet, and comparative studies of empire and colonialism at
Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service campus in
Doha
Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...
,
Qatar
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
, from 2013 to 2021.
Muslim Mediators, Tibetan Conflicts: Chinese Muslims and Colonial Legal Culture in Early Modern China
(Max Gordon Oidtmann, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
), NYU Abu Dhabi.
Fields of research
Max Oidtmann works with historical materials in Chinese
Chinese may refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China.
**'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
, Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
, Uyghur
Uyghur may refer to:
* Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China)
** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs
*** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...
, Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...
and Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
languages.[Max Gordon Oidtmann](_blank)
Oidtmann's book ''Forging the Golden Urn: Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet, 1792-1911'' (2018) is a political history of reincarnation in China and Tibet from the late 1700s through the present.
Publication list
;Ph.D thesis
Between Patron and Priest: Amdo Tibet Under Qing Rule, 1792-1911
Harvard University, 2014, ProQuest
Abstract
;Peer-reviewed articles
Qing Colonial Legal Culture in Amdo Tibet
(original title
A Document from the Xunhua Archives
''International Society for Chinese Law & History'' — 中國法律与歷史國際學會, volume 1, Number 1, November 2014
Imperial Legacies and Revolutionary Legends: The Sibe Cavalry Company, the Eastern Turkestan Republic, and Historical Memories in Xinjiang
''Saksaha: A Journal of Manchu Studies'', volume 21, 2014, pages 49–87
A “Dog-eat-dog” World: Qing Jurispractices and the Legal Inscription of Piety in Amdo
''Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident'', Issue 40, 2016, pages 151–182,
Overlapping Empires: Religion, Politics, and Ethnicity in Nineteenth-Century Qinghai
''Late Imperial China'', Volume 37, Number 2, December 2016, pages 41–91
; Book chapters
*(With Yang Hongwei), A Study of Qing Dynasty "''Xiejia''" Rest Houses in Xunhua Subprefecture, Gansu, i
''Muslims in Amdo Tibetan Society: Multidisciplinary Approaches''
Marie-Paule Hille, Bianca Horlemann, Paul K. Nietupski, eds., Lexington Books, 2015, 354 pages, pages 21–46
A Case for Gelukpa Governance: The Historians of Labrang, Amdo, and the Manchu Rulers of China
in ''Greater Tibet. An Examination of Borders, Ethnic Boundaries, and Cultural Areas'', P. Christiaan Klieger ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, 178 pages, pages 111–148
; Books
*''Forging the Golden Urn: The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet'', Columbia University Press, 2018, 352 p.
WEAI Author Q&A: Max Oidtmann's "Forging the Golden Urn", by Ross Yelsey, August 6, 2018
; Reviews
Review of The Prophet and the Party: Shari’a and Sectarianism in China’s Little Mecca, by Matthew Erie
''Dissertation Reviews'', October 7, 2014
References
Related
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oidtmann, Max
1979 births
Living people
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Carleton College alumni
Harvard University alumni
Tibetologists
American sinologists
Historians of China
Place of birth missing (living people)
American male non-fiction writers