Ruth W. Dunnell
Department of History
KenyonCollege
Gambier, Ohio 43022
740-427-5323
Current position:
James Storer Associate Professor of Asian History, KenyonCollege, 1995- ; Assistant Professor, 1989-1995
Previous affiliations:
Resident Director, OregonUniversity System Study Abroad Program in Beijing, 19992000
Research Associate, Center for Chinese Studies, University of California-Berkeley, 1988-89
Visiting Foreign Scholar, Institute of Nationality Studies, ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences,
Beijing, 1987-88
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Oregon, 1985-87
Education:
Ph.D. East Asian Studies, PrincetonUniversity, 1983
M.A. China Studies, University of Washington, 1975
B.A. History, MiddleburyCollege, 1972
Fellowships and grants:
NEH Fellowship for College Teachers and Independent Scholars, 1996-97
IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunity in Eurasia grant, for one month in St.
Petersburg, Russia (Sept.-Oct., 1996)
NEH Division of Higher Education, 1994 Summer Institute Coordinator: "Reading the Manchu
SummerPalace at Chengde: Art, ritual, and rulership in 18th century China and Inner Asia"
IREX Short-Term Travel Grant, December 1993
Faculty Research Grant-in-Residence, Program for Inter-Institutional Collaboration in Area
Studies, University of Michigan, Winter-Spring 1993
American Council of Learned Societies Project Grant, December 1992
National Program for Advanced Study and Research in China Grantee, NationalAcademy of
Sciences, Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, 1987-88
Andrew Mellon Language Training Fellowship (ACLS), 1983-84
Participant, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) program for dissertation research in Leningrad 1980-81
Languages:
Reading knowledge of Russian, French, Japanese, German, classical and modern Chinese; speak Russian and Chinese; decipher Tangut & Tibetan (if clearly printed).
Professional associations:
Association for Asian Studies
Mongolia Society
Sung-Yuan Studies Group
Central Eurasian Studies Society
Professional & administrative service:
Invited Lecture, “Mongols and Manchus,” China Institute, New York, July 2006.
Chair, Department of History, 2004-06
Acting Director, International Studies, Kenyon College, 2003-04
NEH Institutional Fellowship reviewer, January 2003
Manuscript reviewer:University of Hawai'i Press, 2004, 2002; Hacket Publishing, 2006
Supervisor, History Department Senior Honors Program, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2004-06
Director, Oregon University System study abroad program at the CentralNationalitiesUniversity
in Beijing, 1999-2000
Member, China and Inner Asia Council, Association for Asian Studies, 1995-1998;
Chair, CIAC, 1997-98
Co-director, NEH Summer Institute, "Reading the ManchuSummerPalace at Chengde: Art, Ritual, and Rulership in 18th Century China and Inner Asia." University of Michigan, 27 June-29 July, 1994
Editorial consultant, "Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan." Exhibition catalogue, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, October, 1993
Fellowship application evaluator, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Fall 1992-1995; 1997-1999
Editorial Board, Journal of Sung - Yuan Studies, 1991-2005
Chair, Asian Studies Program, Kenyon College, 1990-92, 1994-96, 2003-04
Curricular Policy Committee, Kenyon College, 1991-92
Committee on Academic Standards, Kenyon College, 1993-95
Tenure and Promotion Committee, Kenyon College, 1995-1996
International Studies Committee, Kenyon College, 1989-2002
Asian Studies Program Committee, KenyonCollege, 1991-
Research interests:
Chinese-Inner Asian political, institutional, & cultural history, 12th18th cc; Mongol empire; Northwest China (Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang) and Chinese Muslims (Hui)
Work in progress:
Chinggis Khan, World Conqueror. Under contract with Longmans.
“Review of Russian Scholarship on the Song to Yuan Period, 1996-2006” for Journal of Song Yuan Studies
“Esoteric Buddhism under the Xixia” in Tantra in East Asia: A Handbook for Scholars, eds. Charles Orzech and Henrik Sorensen, under contract with E. J. Brill (Leiden)
“A Social History of Foreigners (Semu) in Yuan China (13th-14th cc.)” (book project)
Sourcebook for Mongol empire, collaborative initiative (idea stage).
Chinese Muslims (Hui) in Ming dynasty (14th17th cc.) (idea stage)
Publications (articles or books):
Chinggis Khan, World Conqueror. New York: Longmans, 2007 (forthcoming)
“Buddhist Monks and the XiaState: A Preliminary Examination of Evidence in the Tiansheng Code,” forthcoming in the Journal of Central Eurasian Philology andHistory, 2007 (in Chinese)
With James A. Millward, Mark C. Elliott Philippe Foret, New Qing Imperial History: The
Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde. LondonNew York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004
“Patronage and Portraiture in Tangut Buddhism," in Embodying Wisdom: Art, Text and
Interpretation in the History of Esoteric Buddhism, ed. Rob. Linrothe and Henrik H. Sørensen. SBS Monographs 6. Copenhagen: The Seminar for Buddhist Studies, 2001
The Great State of White and High: Buddhism and State Formation in Eleventh-Century Xia.
Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1996
"The Recovery of Tangut History." Orientations 27:4 (April 1996), 28-31
"Weiming (Li) Renxiao, 1124-1193." Xia Biographies Series, No. 1. Journal of Sung-Yuan
Studies 25 (1995), 219-228
"Significant Peripheries: Inner Asian Perspectives on Song Studies." Journal of Sung-Yuan
Studies 24 (1994), 334-339
"Hsi-Hsia." The Cambridge History of China, Volume 6. Eds. Denis C. Twitchett and Herbert
Franke. CambridgeUniv. Press, 1994
"The Tanguts and their Relations with the Han Chinese." Three documents translated for
inclusion in the revised second edition of Patricia B. Ebrey, Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook.
New York: Free Press, 1993
Contributions on China and Central Asia to a new Guide to Historical Literature, American
Historical Association, 1992
"Religion, Politics, and Ethnicity in 11th c. Xia: The Construction of Tangut Identity in the
Wuwei Stele Inscription of 1094." Central and Inner Asian Studies 7 (1992), 61-114
"The Hsia Origins of the Yüan Institution of Imperial Preceptor." Asia Major, 3rd ser., 5:1
(1992), 85-111. (A Chinese version was published in Ningxia shehui kexue 1992)
"Locating the Tangut Military Establishment," Monumenta Serica 40 (1992), 219-234. (A
Chinese version appeared in Ningxia shehui kexue 6 (1986), 68-71.)
"The Fall of Xia: Sino-Steppe Relations in the Late 12th-Early 13th Centuries." In Rulers from
the Steppe: State Formation on the Eurasian Periphery, ed. Gary Seaman and Daniel Marks.
Volume Two. Proceedings of the Soviet-American Academic Symposia in Conjuction with the
Museum Exhibition "Nomads: Masters of the Eurasian Steppe." Los Angeles: University of
Southern California Ethnographics Press, 1991, 158-185
"Naming the Tangut Capital: Xingqing, Zhongxing and Related Matters." Bulletin of Sung &
Yuan Studies 21 (1989), 52-66. (A Chinese version was published in Bai Bin, Shi Jinpo, et al.
eds, Zhongguo minzu shi yanjiu, [Beijing, 1989], 156-166.)
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"The 1094 Sino-Tangut Gantong Stupa Stele Inscription of Wuwei. Introduction, Translation of
Chinese Text, and Source Study." In Languages and History in East Asia. Festschrift for
Professor Tatsuo Nishida in Honour of his 60th Birthday. Ed. Akihiro Sato, et al. Kyoto: Kyoto
University, 1988, 187-215
"Tanguts." Encyclopedia of Asian History. Ed. Ainslee T. Embree, et al. New York: Asia
Society & Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987. Vol. 4, 71-73
"Who are the Tanguts? Remarks on Tangut Ethnogenesis and the Ethnonym Tangut." Journal
of Asian History 18:1 (1984), 78-89
"Sung, Chin and Hsi-Hsia." In Soviet Studies of Premodern China: Assessments of Recent
Scholarship. Ed. Gilbert Rozman. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies at the U. of
Michigan, 1984, 69-79
"Tanguts and the Tangut State of Ta Hsia." PrincetonUniversity Ph.D. diss. 1983.
"Tangut Studies in the Soviet Union: State of the Field (1981)." Bulletin of Sung and Yuan Studies 17 (1981)
Reviews:
“Juha Janhunen, Manchuria, An Ethnic History (Helsinki: The Finno-Ugrian Society, 1996).@
The Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 28 (1998).
"S.A.M. Adshead, Central Asia in World History (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993)."
Journal of Asian Studies 53:1 (1994).
"Tim Severin, dir. `Retracing History: In Search of Genghis Khan.' Films for the Humanities,
Princeton, N.J., 1993." Journal of Asian Studies 53:4 (Nov. 1994), 1343-1344
"E. I. Kychanov and Herbert Franke, Tangutische und chinesische Quellen zur
Militargesetzgebung des 11. bis 13. Jahrhunderts. München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1990." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd ser., vol. 2, pt. 3 (Nov.
1992), 488-92
"Thomas Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China," Journal of Asian
Studies 50:1 (1991), 126-27
"Soviet Scholarship on Medieval China, 1982-1987." Bulletin of Sung and Yuan Studies 20
(1989)
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"Review of V. A. Vel'gus, Srednevekovyi Kitai (Medieval China) (Moscow: Nauka, 1987)."
Bulletin of Sung and Yuan Studies 20 (1989)
"China Among Equals. The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries, ed. Morris
Rossabi." Journal of Asian Studies 43:5 (Nov., 1984)
"The Jurchen in Twelfth-Century China, by Tao Jing-shen." Sung Studies Newsletter 13 (1977)
Presentations:
“Mongol and Manchu Legacies to Ethnic Diversity in China,” Teach China Summer Institute, July 2006, sponsored by the China Institute, New York.
"The Shadow Goes Front: Chinese Films in the Classrooms," Co-panelist with Bai Jianhua,
ASIANetwork Annual Conference, April, 2004, Hickory Ridge, Illinois
A>Like leaves scattered in the storm=: The 13th century Tangut diaspora in China.@Paper for a
panel at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies,, March, 2001, Chicago.
AMonks and Monarchs: The Many Faces of Patronage at the Tangut Court, 12th-early 13th cc.@
Presented to the China Colloquium, University of Texas at Austin, April 1997.
"Sangha-State relations in 12th Century Xia According to the Tangut Law Code." Paper for a
panel at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, April 1996, Honolulu.
"The Chengde Project: Report from the 1994 NEH Summer Institute." Round-table organizer,
Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, WashingtonD.C., March 1995
"Tibetan Studies: State of the Field." Round-table participant, AmericanAcademy of Religion
annual meeting, Chicago, Nov. 1994
"Significant Peripheries: Inner Asian Perspectives on Song Studies." Association for Asian
Studies annual meeting, Los Angeles, March 1993
"Buried in Style: Revelations from the Tomb of an 11th Century Nomadic Liao Princess in Inner
Mongolia." Common Hour Talk, KenyonCollege, Nov. 10, 1992
"Imperial Geography and Sacred Space: A History of the DayunTemple in the FrontierTown of
Liangzhou." 34th Annual Conference of the American Association of Chinese Studies, Novi,
Michigan, October 24-25, 1992
"Religion, Politics, and Ethnicity in 11th c. Xia: The Construction of Tangut Identity in the
Wuwei Stele Inscription of 1094." University of Toronto Central and Inner Asian Series, April
10, 1992
"Cultural Identity in the Liao, Jin, Xi Xia and BohaiKingdoms." Panel discussant. Association
for Asian Studies annual meeting, WashingtonD.C., April 1992
"Tangut Buddhist Kingship and its Yuan Legacy." Association for Asian Studies annual
meeting, New Orleans, April 11-14, 1991
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"China Update: Buddhism is Alive and Well and Other Stories From the Field." Kenyon
College Common Hour Talk, Jan. 22, 1991
"The Future of Ningxia is in its Past." Ohio Chinese Studies Group, OSU, 12/6/90
"Buddhism and the Establishment of the ImperialTangutState." China Studies Colloquium,
Univ. of Washington, May 25, 1990; Dept. of Religion, Univ. of Hawaii, May 31, 1990
"Up the Gansu Corridor: Tombs and Temples of Northwest China." Common Hour talk,
KenyonCollege, 5 April 1990; Commencement Faculty Lecture, May 19 1990
"The Fall of Xia: Sino-Steppe Relations in the Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries."
Symposium on "Rulers From the Steppe: State Formation on the Eurasian Periphery,"
Smithsonian Institution, November 16-17, 1989, Washington, D.C.
"Buddhism & the TangutState of Xia (1038-1227)." Conference on the Teaching of Central
Asian & Chinese Minority Languages & Cultures, Institute of East Asian Studies, Univ. of Ca.-
Berkeley, 19-20 May, 1989
"Sources of Tangut History: Texts & Tombs." Center for Chinese Studies Colloquim, Univ. of
Ca.-Berkeley, March 28, 1989
"Cultural interaction between Han China and Inner Asia". Panel discussant, Association for
Asian Studies annual meeting, Boston, April 1987
"The Mongol conquest of Xi Xia reexamined." American Oriental Society annual meeting, Ann
Arbor, April 1985
Courses taught:
Classical & Imperial China, Modern China, Women & Gender in Chinese History
Modern East Asia, East Asia to 1800,Marriage & Politics in East Asian History
Modern Japan, Japan to 1800; Qing China & Tokugawa Japan
Mongol Empire in World History, Tibet and Mongolia, Tibet Between China & the West
Asia in Comparative Perspective (Asian Studies senior seminar), History Senior Seminar
Team-taught:
Islam in China & Central Asia; Religious & Social Change in East Asia(11th- 13th c.);
Modern China Through Film & Fiction; Vietnam; The Mongol Empires
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