معرفی
Elisabeth Kaske is Professor of Society and Culture of Modern China at the University of Leipzig's East Asian Institute, a position she has held since April 2017. Her academic career spans multiple prestigious institutions across Germany, the United States, and Asia, including positions at Frankfurt University, Carnegie Mellon University (where she rose from Assistant to Associate Professor), Harvard University, and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study.
Dr. Kaske received her doctorate in Sinology from Heidelberg University between 2002-2006. Her scholarly journey has taken her through significant research fellowships including the An Wang postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard's Fairbank Center, a Taiwan Fellowship at Academia Sinica, and the Starr Foundation East Asian Studies Endowment Fund membership at Princeton.
Kaske's research focuses on China's complex transition to modernity, with particular expertise in Qing Dynasty history, Chinese fiscal policy, and the emergence of modern Chinese national identity. Her work challenges conventional understandings of imperialism and semi-colonialism in late imperial China, examining how Chinese elites navigated modernization through military reforms, language standardization, and fiscal innovations. She has made significant contributions to understanding how Chinese fiscal policy and the sale of rank and office impacted the Qing Dynasty's final century, and is currently investigating how professional elites, particularly engineers, visualized the Chinese nation in the 20th century.
Her scholarly output reveals a consistent focus on the intersection of state-building, fiscal policy, and national identity formation in modern China, with publications spanning topics from Sino-German military exchanges to language reform and fiscal administration during China's transition from empire to nation-state.
- An Wang postdoctoral fellowship, Harvard University
- Taiwan Fellowship, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
- Starr Foundation East Asian Studies Endowment Fund, Princeton
Professor Kaske leads significant research projects including 'Twilight of the Mandarins: Office Selling and the End of Imperial China' (2021-2022) and 'Chinesische Ingenieure und ihre Raumvisionen: Erbauer einer vernetzten Nation, 1906–1937' (2020-2023), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as part of the SFB 1199 research cluster. Her work bridges historical scholarship with contemporary questions about state formation and national identity.
Her research is conducted within the framework of the Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe) and the East Asian Institute, contributing to Leipzig University's longstanding tradition in Sinological studies that dates back to 1878 when the first professorship in Sinology was established in Germany.
