Jack Chen

Jack Chen is a Professor of Chinese Literature and Department Chair at the University of Virginia's Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures, with additional affiliation to the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures. His office is located in Wilson Hall, where he holds weekly office hours. Previously, he taught at UCLA and Wellesley College.

Education

• BA in Literature, Yale University
• MA in Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
• PhD in Comparative Literature, Harvard University

Research Focus

Chen specializes in classical and medieval Chinese literature (100-900 CE), particularly the Tang Dynasty. His interdisciplinary work bridges traditional literary analysis with computational methods, exploring:

• The history of information management in imperial China
• Gossip and anecdote as cultural artifacts
• Digital humanities approaches to East Asian texts
• Ghost poetry and supernatural narratives

Current projects include developing computational tools for classical Chinese corpora and studying early medieval anecdotal collections.

Publication Trends

Recent articles (2022-2024) demonstrate three key themes: 1) Integration of digital humanities with classical Chinese textual analysis, 2) Re-examination of literary history through spatial/temporal frameworks, and 3) Genre studies of Tang Dynasty narratives like Chuanqi tales. Computational methods feature prominently across publications.

Professional Activities

No awards, grants, or supervised students are mentioned in available sources. His departmental leadership includes curriculum development for Chinese Language & Literature and East Asian Studies programs.