Research Profile
Professor Barlow's research focuses on Chinese intellectual and women's history, with particular emphasis on feminism in China, colonial modernity in East Asia, and the cultural politics of gender in modern China. Her work examines the intersection of gender, modernity, and political transformation in late 19th and early 20th century China through interdisciplinary approaches combining history, cultural theory, and feminist studies.
Current research interests include late 19th and early 20th century Chinese politics, media and consumer culture, with special attention to commercial advertising archives and visual culture. She welcomes advanced graduate students with capacity to handle data sets, image analysis, cultural theory and business history.
Selected Publications
Monographs
- 2021 In the Event of Women. Durham: Duke University Press
- 2004 The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Durham: Duke University Press
- 2003 Inter/National Feminism and China. Trans. Ito Ruri and Kobayashi Eri. Tokyo: Ochanomizu Press
Edited Volumes
- 2016 The World Looks at China: Twenty Years of positions: asia critique. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press (in Chinese)
- 2010 Co-editor (with Ruri Ito, Hiroko Sakamoto). The Modern Girl, Colonial Modernity, and East Asia. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten (in Japanese)
- 2008 Co-editor (with Madeleine Dong, Uta Poiger, Priti Ramamurthy, Lynn Thomas, and Alys Weinbaum). The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press
- 2002 Editor. New Asian Marxisms. Durham: Duke University Press
- 2002 Editor. Cinema and Desire: The Cultural Politics of Feminist Marxist Dai Jinhua. London: Verso
- 1999 Editor. I Myself Am a Woman: Selected Writings of Ding Ling. Boston: Beacon Press
Recent Articles and Book Chapters
- 2017 "What is the Problem? Digital Studies and Professional Historians." In Digital Humanities: Between Past, Present, and Future. Taipei: Research Center for Digital Humanities, National Taiwan University
- 2016 "Sexual Difference in Foundational Chinese Marxist Sociology: Qu Qiubai and Li Da on Female Centered Evolution." Remapping, Vol. 4. Beijing (in Chinese)
- 2016 "History's Coffin Can Never Be Closed: On Qu Qiubai and Translation." Special issue of Boundary 2 42:3
- 2016 "Body and Soul: Anglo-America Asianisms, 1870-1995." In Nicola Spakowski and Mark Frey, eds., Contemporary Asianisms. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press
- 2015 "Commercial Advertising Art in Late 19th and early 20th Century 'China'." In Martin Powers and Katherine Tsiang, eds., Blackwell Companion to Chinese Art. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
- 2013 "Event, Abyss, Excess: the Event of Women in Chinese Commercial Advertisement, 1910s-1930s." differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies 24:2
- 2011 "'What is a poem?' History and the Modern Girl." In David Palumbo-Liu, Bruce Robbins & Nirvana Tanoukhi, eds., Immanuel Wallerstein and the Problem of the World: System, Scale and Culture. Durham: Duke University Press
Major Projects & Grants
Chinese Commercial Advertising Archive
A comprehensive digital archive documenting commercial advertising in late 19th and early 20th century China, examining visual culture and consumer modernity.
Ephemera Project
Interdisciplinary research initiative examining ephemeral materials and everyday documents in modern Asian history.
Project for Critical Asian Studies
Collaborative research network promoting critical approaches to Asian Studies across disciplines and institutions.
Editorial Leadership
Founding Senior Editor, positions: asia critique (1993-present)
An international, peer-reviewed journal that has received multiple awards including the Best New Journal Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (1995). The journal publishes critical scholarship on Asia and has edited or co-edited 47 special issues under Professor Barlow's leadership.
Teaching & Mentorship
Professor Barlow accepts advanced graduate students in Modern Chinese history with emphasis on late 19th and early 20th century politics, media, and consumer culture. She particularly welcomes applicants with capacity to handle data sets, image analysis, cultural theory, and business history.
Former Positions:
- Inaugural Director, Chao Center for Asian Studies, Rice University (2008-2013)
- Visiting Professor, Institute of Advanced Study, Shanghai Jiaotong University
- Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing
- Visiting Professor, Nanjing University Institute for Advanced Studies
- Visiting Professor, Hitotsubashi and Ochanomizu Universities, Japan
- Visiting Professor, University of Bologna, Italy
Contact Information
Email: barlow@rice.edu
Office: Department of History, Rice University
Address: 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005
Profile: Rice Faculty Profile
Google Scholar: Publications & Citations