Tristan G. Brown is a social and cultural historian of late imperial and modern China. His research focuses on the ways in which law, science, environment, and religion interacted in China from the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries.
He is currently working on his first book, which draws on Qing judicial archives and cartographic materials to investigate the uses of cosmology in imperial Chinese law. He is also preparing a second project that employs Chinese, Arabic, and Manchu sources to reveal how Islam was practiced as a local religion in late imperial China. He has published articles in T’oung Pao, Late Imperial China, and Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions.
He has held research fellowships at St John’s College, Cambridge and Stanford University. He has conducted research in China, Taiwan, and Jordan with the support of grants and fellowships from the British Academy, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, and the Henry Luce Foundation.
Professor Brown offers courses on pre-modern and modern Chinese history as well as the environmental history of China. He is particularly keen on getting students involved in digital methods for the study of history.
Paper Title: Sprouts of Fortune: The Powers of Ancient Trees in Late Imperial China (Panel 3, 3A)