Ariel Fox

Ariel Fox serves as Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, with cross-appointment in Theater and Performance Studies. She currently holds the position of Director of Graduate Studies for EALC and is on academic leave during the 2024-2025 year.

Her research centers on Ming-Qing literary production's entanglement with economic systems, specializing in vernacular fiction, drama, monetary history, and the conceptual framework of the economic imaginary. Current projects investigate anthropomorphic money narratives, banknote aesthetics, and movement practices in late imperial performance. This interdisciplinary work bridges literary analysis with economic anthropology to examine how theatrical forms mediated China's engagement with global commerce.

Professor Fox's publications reveal consistent thematic focus on commercial representation in early modern Chinese literature, particularly examining moral dimensions of merchant figures, material transformations of currency, and community dynamics in theatrical space. Her scholarship demonstrates how literary genres processed economic change through narrative strategies that redefined social value and interpersonal relations during China's integration into global trade networks.