CV
sf on Apr 30th 2008
Susan R. Fernsebner
1301 College Avenue
History & American Studies
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
sfernseb (at) umw (dot) edu
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Department of History and American Studies, University of Mary Washington (2004-present)
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Vermont (2003-2004)
Visiting Scholar, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (1999-2000)
Education
Ph.D. in History, 2002, University of California at San Diego. Dissertation: Material Modernities: China’s Participation in World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1876-1955
M.A. in East Asian Studies, 1993, Stanford University
B.A. in History, 1990, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Research and Publications
Material Choreographies: China’s Participation in World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1851-1955 (ms. in progress)
“Objects, Spectacle, and a Nation on Display at the Nanyang Exposition of 1910.” Late Imperial China 27.2 (December 2006): 99-124.
“A People’s Playthings: Toys, Childhood and Chinese Identity, 1909-1933.” Postcolonial Studies 6.3 (November 2003): 269-293.
Essays and Curriculum
Teaching Module for Children and Youth in World History, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
Encyclopedia Articles
“Shanghai 2010: The World Expo,” in John E. Findling and Kimberly Pelle, eds., The Encyclopedia of World’s Fairs and Expositions (Jefferson: McFarland Press, 2008).
Works in Progress
Sequel project on notions of childhood in early 20th c. China, in development.
Awards and Fellowships
Jepson Fellowship, University of Mary Washington (2007-2008)
Baird Society Resident Scholarship, Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Summer 2003)
An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University (2002-2003)
President’s Dissertation Writing Fellow, University of California at San Diego (2001-2002)
American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), National Program for Advanced Study and Research in China (1999-2000)
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, UC San Diego and Taiwan (1996-1997)
Hsiu Chinese Studies Fellowship, UC San Diego (Summer 1996)
Regents Fellowship, UC San Diego (1994-1995)
Selected Conferences and Papers
“Surveying ‘Articles Peculiar to the Locality’: China at Turn of the Century World’s Fairs.” Paper presentation for the Association of Asian Studies, Southeast Conference. Hilton Head, SC. 19 January 2008
“American Scholarly Perspectives on Chinese History.” Invited speaker, Renmin University of China (中国人民大学). Beijing, 13 June 2007
“Renovating the Object in Early Twentieth Century China.” Invited paper, Weatherhead East Asian Workshop on “Everyday Technology, Materiality, and Gender in China, 1890 to 1960,” Columbia University. 20 May 2006
“Of Menu Cards and Dinner at the Ming Tombs: China’s Early Twentieth-Century Nation-Building in a Global Context.” Invited paper for Presidential Session of the American Historical Association (AHA) 120th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. 8 January 2006
“Objects, Spectacle and a Nation on Display at the Nanyang Exposition.” Invited paper, East Asia Center and the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. 18 November 2004
Invited Discussant. The China Quarterly Special Issue Workshop on Arts and Culture in Contemporary China. Harvard University. 15-16 October 2004
“Material Choreographies: Objects, Spectacle and a Nation on Display at the Nanyang Exposition.” Invited paper, Cambridge University Conference, “Exhibiting East Asia.” Cambridge University, England. 21-23 June 2004
“Arranging a Cultural Inventory: Material Display at China’s Turn of the Century Exhibition Halls.” Conference on “The Persistence of Traditions: Monuments and Preservation in Late Imperial and Modern China.” Co-sponsored by the Department of Art History and Archaeology, the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the Getty Conservation Institute. Columbia University. 2-3 April 2004
“Visualizing China: Street Fairs, Exhibitions, and the Novel Object.” Paper presentation for the Fairbank Center Workshop, “Urban Spectacle and the Rise of Mass Culture in Late Qing and Republican China.” Harvard University. 3 May 2003
Workshop Chair and Organizer, “Urban Spectacle and the Rise of Mass Culture in Late Qing and Republican China.” Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University. 2-4 May 2003
“A Pre-Fab Forbidden City? The Chinese Republic at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915.” Presented at the Fairbank Center Workshop, “Touring, Migrating, and Fleeing: Movements of People and Objects in Qing and Republican China.” Harvard University. 25-26 May 2002
“Unruly Objects and the Problem of Display.” Presented at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting, Panel title: “National Ornaments: East Asia and Exhibitionism at the Turn of the Century.” Washington, D.C. 4 April 2002
Presentations
“Cultural Studies and Digital Pedagogies.” Panel Presentation and Discussion, Faculty Academy on Instructional Technology, University of Mary Washington, 13 May 2008
“Utilizing Student Blogs in the History Seminar.” Panel Presentation and Discussion, Faculty Academy on Instructional Technology, University of Mary Washington, 16 May 2007
“China’s Silent Goddess? The Fame and Irony of Ruan Lingyu.” Lecture and film discussion, Women’s History Month, 21 March 2007
“Daily Life in Today’s People’s Republic.” Lecture and discussion, Elder Study, University of Mary Washington, 1 February 2007
“Managing Things at the Nanyang Exposition of 1910.” Lecture. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, 13 December 2002
Other Professional and Scholarly Activity
Reviewer of web resources for the Center for History and New Media project Children and Youth in World History (2008)
Reviewer for East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History textbook manuscript, first and second editions, Houghtin Mifflin (2004, 2007)
Reviewer for article submissions, Journal of Asian Studies
Professional Affiliations
Association of Asian Studies (AAS)
American Historical Association (AHA)
Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY)