Past Awards

In collaboration with the Princeton University Library, Rare Book School will offer a new course on Books in Ming China as part of the School’s 2024 course roster. Intended for scholars already familiar with Ming studies, this course will introduce participants to the collection of some 2,000 Ming books held at the Princeton libraries. Students will have the chance to conduct research in Princeton’s Gest Collection of East Asian Materials and generate ideas for current and future research projects in Ming Studies. 

Funding supports membership dues, conference travel, lodging, and registration for at least five scholars of Ming or Ming-adjacent fields to attend the Modern Language Association of American Conference in Philadelphia from January 4-7, 2024. Preference will be given to graduate students, contingent faculty, independent scholars, faculty at poorly resourced institutions, and international scholars.

To support emerging scholars, the Society for Ming Studies will host a roundtable on new books by international Ming scholars at the Society’s meeting-in-conjunction at the Association for Asian Studies Conference in Seattle. Funding from GHF will allow three junior scholars who are based at institutions outside of North America and have recently released books with non-US publishers to travel to the conference to participate in the roundtable.

A three-year award will support the work of the managing editor of the Journal of the Society for Ming Studies and fund his travel to the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference.

GHF funds will support a recording and workshop performance of the opera Ghost Village, based on Liaozhai’s Strange Tales by Pu Songling. Composer Chen Yao (Central Conservatory of Music), conductor Chen Lin (Tianjin Julliard School), and répétiteur Wei-En Hsu (Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts) will take part.

The Association for Asian Studies will offer grants of up to $2,000 for scholars of the Ming dynasty and Ming-adjacent peoples to attend, either virtually or in person, the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston. Preference will be given to contingent and part-time faculty, students, and independent scholars.

Nine graduate students will give ten-minute presentations on their research at the Society for Ming Studies’ Annual Meeting, highlighting their primary arguments, key sources, and the ways in which their research connects to the Ming. The initiative aims to encourage Ming research and engagement at the junior scholar level, and bring to the fore questions, research materials, and methodologies that productively challenge and enlarge the study of Ming China.

An award from GHF will allow the Society for Ming Studies to expand the responsibilities of the editor of the Ming Studies journal, who is an elected and semi-permanent member of the Society for Ming Studies’ executive committee. The editor will creatively develop the journal’s digital presence, explore new publishing opportunities for the Ming Studies Monograph Series, work to cement the relationship between the academic society and the journal, and strengthen their positions as leading international venues for scholarship on all aspects of Ming China.