ZHANG Meng

ZHANG Meng is an Assistant Professor of Chinese History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research focuses on late imperial and modern China, emphasizing economic and environmental transformation, political economy of empire, and transregional connections in global capitalism. She holds a PhD and MA in History from UCLA (2017, 2013) and a BA in Economics from Peking University (2010).

Her first book, Timber and Forestry in Qing China: Sustaining the Market (2021), re-examines Qing-era timber management and won major awards including the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Book Award. Current projects include All the Debt Under Heaven on Qing-era cross-cultural loans and a study on edible bird’s nests as transnational commodities.

ZHANG’s work has been supported by prestigious grants such as the Luce/ACLS Fellowship, NEH, and Mellon Foundation funding. She co-organizes UCLA’s History Brown Bag Seminar Series and actively mentors graduate students in economic history, borderland studies, and environmental history.

• Awards: Weyerhaeuser Book Award (2022), NEH Summer Stipend (2023), Luce/ACLS Fellowship (2024-25)
• Grants: Mellon Foundation Fellowship (2021), Britton-Perry Dean’s Fellowship (2021-23)
• Key Themes: Sovereignty, transregional trade, environmental sustainability, Qing legal frameworks