Andrew Schonebaum

Andrew Schonebaum is an Associate Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on vernacular entertainments, medical texts, and popular knowledge in early modern China, with an emphasis on the intersections between literature, science, and daily life. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Brown University.

His major works include Novel Medicine: Healing, Literature and Popular Knowledge in Early Modern China and edited volumes like Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone and Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase. He is currently completing Observing the Unseen: Curiosity and Common Knowledge in Late Imperial China, exploring how early modern Chinese literate and semi-literate communities understood their natural world through epistemic and entertainment texts.

His research spans medical humanities, translation studies, and material culture, with a particular interest in how fictional narratives conveyed practical knowledge. He has pioneered open-source pedagogical tools, such as Introduction to Classical Chinese, and collaborates across disciplines to advance understanding of Chinese literary and cultural history.

His recent scholarship examines the global reception of classical Chinese novels, the role of curiosity in pre-modern knowledge systems, and the materiality of literary production. His work bridges literary analysis with interdisciplinary approaches, offering fresh insights into early modern China’s intellectual and social landscapes.