Tani BarlowView profile
Professor
Dr. Tani Barlow is the George & Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, affiliated with the Chao Center for Asian Studies and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. A leading scholar in Modern Chinese intellectual history, her work bridges gender studies, media culture, and transnational feminism. She co-founded the Chinese Commercial Advertising Archive and edits the acclaimed journal positions: asia critique . Her research examines late 19th to early 20th century China through lenses of consumer culture, feminist theory, and cultural ephemera. Notable books include In the Event of Women (2018) and The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism (2004). Barlow holds visiting professorships at Tsinghua University, Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Bologna. She has directed major projects like the Rockefeller Foundation's Critical Asian Studies initiative and the Luce Foundation’s Ephemera Project. Her articles span journals like Boundary 2 and differences , analyzing topics from advertising art to Marxist sociology. Her recent work explores digital humanities applications in historical research and the intersections of capitalism with gendered identities in China. Barlow mentors advanced graduate students specializing in modern Chinese history with technical skills in data analysis and cultural theory. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates visual studies, political economy, and feminist critique to reframe understandings of China’s modernization processes.













