Maura Dykstra

Maura Dykstra is an Assistant Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in Ming and Qing China with a focus on governance, legal history, and bureaucratic systems. Her research explores the interplay between textual practices and state administration, emphasizing local and imperial institutional frameworks.

Her first book, Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine (2022), examines the administrative evolution of the Qing state. Current projects include studies of Qing county-level governance and the colonization of the Sichuan-Hunnan-Guizhou border region. She has held fellowships at institutions like the Max Planck Institute and Harvard’s Fairbank Center.

Awarded the Caltech Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2021), Dykstra is also committed to diversity and inclusion in academia. She teaches courses such as ‘State of War: Conflict, Conquest, and Consolidation in Late Imperial China’ (H315), reflecting her thematic interests in empires, law, and spatial history.

Her work bridges historical methodologies, including archival analysis of local litigation cases and the material practices of governance. Collaborative projects include a working group on the Chinese Legal Tradition at the Max Planck Institute for Legal Theory.