Expert Profile
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Chancellor's Professor
Jeffrey specializes in modern Chinese cultural history & world history, who has written on many contemporary as well as historical issues
Areas of Expertise
- Urban
- Globalization
- China
- Protest
- Gender
Biography
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he also holds courtesy affiliations in Law and Literary Journalism. Holder of a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz, a master’s from Harvard, and a doctorate from Berkeley, he has written, coauthored, edited or coedited more than ten books. His most recent books are: Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (2020) and China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, updated third edition coauthored with Maura Elizabeth Cunningham (Oxford, 2018). In addition to writing for academic journals, Wasserstrom has contributed to many general interest venues, e.g., the New York Times, the TLS, and the Wall Street Journal. He is an advising editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and an academic editor of its associated China Channel. He served as a consultant for two prize-winning Long Bow Film Group documentary, was interviewed on camera for the film “Joshua; Teenager vs. Superpower,” is an adviser to the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and is a former member of the Board of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. In the spring of 2020, he was to be a Leverhulme Visiting Professor of Birkbeck College, University of London, but taking up that post has been delayed due to COVID-19
Media
Media Appearances
Why History is Repeating itself in Thailand
Journal of Democracy, 11/15/2024
Walz has a long history with China
Semafor, 8/8/2024
‘The old days are no more’: Hong Kong goes quiet as security laws tighten their grip
The Guardian, 4/11/2024
Article 23: China hits back at criticism of Hong Kong’s hardline new security law
The Guardian, 3/21/2024
How Repression (and Protest) Gets Repeated
Journal of Democracy, 1/29/2024
Why the U.S.-China Relationship Isn’t as Predictable as It Sometimes Seems
The Wall Street Journal, 12/16/2023
The Best China Books of 2023
Five Books, 12/13/2023
Matthew Longo’s ‘The Picnic’ tells the story of a forgotten Pan-European gathering on the border between Hungary and Austria in 1989
The Boston Globe, 11/21/2023
She studies 'sensitive topics' in Chinese history. Hong Kong denied her work visa
NPR, 11/12/2023
China Buries Former Premier Li Keqiang Following Restrained Funeral
Voice of America, 11/2/2023
Articles
Don’t let them call the tune: A professor debates the moral questions about speaking at events sponsored by an organisation with links to the Chinese government
Index on Censorship
Ghost writers: The author and China expert imagines a fictional futuristic lecture he’s going to give in 2049, the centenary of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
Index on Censorship
History, Myth, and the Tales of Tiananmen
Popular Protest And Political Culture In Modern China
Did China Have a 1968?
The American Historical Review
Airbrushing history: With China’s Communist Party still in power, the way 1917 is remembered must follow the party line. One man learnt the hard way
Index on Censorship
Education
University of California, Berkeley
PhD, History, 1989
Harvard University
MA, East Asian Studies, 1984
University of California, Santa Cruz
BA, History, 1982
Accomplishments
- Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar
- Visiting Research Fellow
- W. Bruce Lincolm Memorial Lecturer (Northern Illinois)
Affiliations
- American Historical Association
- Association for Asian Studies