We ask our instructors about their early lives, career development and proudest accomplishments. This interview features Dr. Leo Shin, Associate Professor in History and Asian Studies and convenor of the newly established Hong Kong Studies Initiative at UBC.
In the first episode of our UBC Asian Studies Stories series, Dr. Shin discusses his early research into Ming China, what he wishes to convey to his students, and his current projects. At the helm of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative, Shin has been engaging the broader community on and off campus while also encouraging the telling of the story of Hong Kong from both local and global perspectives.
When asked what impact he hopes his research will make in the world, Shin responds:
“To convey to others that nations and national identities—often the core of how we make sense of ourselves—are ultimately constructed. And if people understand that, they may be able to put national identities and national interests in proper historical contexts.”
Bio
Teaching at UBC since: 2001
Notable Publication:
- Dang dai xi fang Han xue yan jiu ji cui 當代西方漢學研究集萃 [Selected contemporary Western scholarship on Chinese Studies] (Shanghai: Shanghai gu ji chu ban she, 2012]
- The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
W18 Courses:
- ASIA 373: History of Hong Kong
- HIST 378: History of Early China
- HIST 379: Later Imperial China
- ASIA 501: Materials and Methods for Classical Chinese Studies
