Chengji Xing

Sally Chengji Xing is an Associate Professor of History at Nankai University (Tianjin, China) and a fellow of Nankai’s Hundred Young Leaders’ Program. She holds a visiting postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. Previously, she was the Richard Hofstadter Fellow at Columbia University (2016–2021), and held visiting fellowships at MPIWG and the University of Göttingen.

Her research focuses on transnational intellectual history, particularly the role of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Culture and Education in transmitting American science to China (1913–1949). She explores Sino-American exchanges through archival studies, global knowledge networks, and institutional frameworks. Her work is supported by grants from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Tokyo Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute, and others.

Recent presentations include discussions on Wilsonianism in China, debates over applied vs. pure sciences in the China Foundation’s early years, and transnational knowledge transfers between China, Europe, and the U.S. She leads projects like digitizing the China Foundation Network and studies the global production of scientific knowledge.

Her teaching and research interests span transnational history, global science policy, and 20th-century Sino-American relations. She is affiliated with Nankai University’s international collaborations and regularly participates in global academic networks.