Chinese Historians

Dr. En Li’s Podcast Series, “Tenure: A Game Manual”

I have been working on a podcast series/pet project entitled “Tenure: A Game Manual” to demystify the tenure process. For my own background and interest, this interview series prioritizes providing practical tips for female faculty, faculty parents, and international scholars in the humanities who are typically at disadvantage of the tenure “game.”

Here is the newly published Season#1:

Ep 1: “The Tenure Process,” with Dr. Dan Du, UNC-Charlotte

Ep 2: “Personal Finance in Academia,” with Dr. Mai Wang, UT Dallas

Ep 3: “The Nontraditional Scholar,” with Dr. Anne Gray Fischer, UT Dallas

Ep 4: “The International Academic,” with Dr. Gilbert Zhe Chen, Towson University

Ep 5: “Post Tenure—What Keeps You Going?” with Dr. Brian DeMare, Tulane University

I am looking for guest speakers for the next seasons. If you have unique stories are loosely related to the tenure process and academic life and are willing to share, please write to me. If selected, a small honorarium will be provided to compensate your time
and knowledge. All feedback and suggestions are welcome. Look forward to hearing from you.

Spotify:

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/…/tenure-a-game…/id1814937987

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@Tenureagamemanual

*This podcast series is generously supported by the Provost Teaching Fellow Program, and the Dean and the aXh grant from the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology of the University of Texas at Dallas, as well as the assistance from Sebastian
Bancesco, the production manager of the series.

Speakers: Dr. Zachary Hershey, Dr. Ignatius G.D Suglo, Dr. Hong Zhang
Moderator: Dr. Yi Ren

When: June 10, 2025, 19:00-21:00 PM EST (June 11, 2025, 7-9 AM Beijing Time)
Where: Zoom, please register in advance at

https://ualr-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/vATvmdp2RSeuLzVzfOreDA

Dear Colleagues,

In today’s challenging academic job market, early-career scholars often move through a series of temporary positions before securing tenure-track roles. During these temporary academic appointments, how should we develop research and plan publications, diversify our teaching portfolios and grow pedagogically, build professional networks and seek mentorship opportunities, and maintain work-life balance? In the upcoming CHUS Engagement online workshop, we are inviting three academics who have effectively leveraged postdoctoral fellowships and visiting assistant professorships as stepping stones to tenure-track appointments. They will offer first-hand experiences and actionable advice for turning these interim roles into meaningful career advancement opportunities.

Registration:

https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/Rao0xw7IQWqAq7_h9LFdHg
Meeting ID: 987 8375 9338
Passcode: 040228

2024 CHUS Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award

The 2024 CHUS Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Professor Hanchao Lu, School of History and Sociology at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Professor Xi Wang, Department of History at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Hanchao Lu

Professor Hanchao Lu has exceeded the criteria of excellence in historical studies and generosity in service. Professor Lu’s service to CHUS has been extraordinary. As the CHUS President (1999-2001), Professor Lu led a group of CHUS members for a successful visit to Taiwan in 2000 and published an edited volume: Modernity and Cultural Identity in Taiwan (World Scientific, 2001) after the trip. At the turn of this century, the Chinese Historical Review suffered two three-year hiatuses until, in 2003, when Professor Lu took the initiative to revitalize the journal with two colleagues. He served on the editorial team and then as co-chief editor for an unprecedented total of fifteen years (2004-2019) and helped to establish Chinese Historical Review (CHR) as a highly respected academic journal. Professor Lu has continued to support CHR as an author and CHUS for many of its activities.

Professor Lu has published nine scholarly monographs, three of which won awards, and numerous articles in major academic journals. From his first monograph in English, Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century (University of California Press, 1999/2004) to the most recent one, Shanghai Tai Chi: The Art of Being Ruled in Mao’s China (Cambridge University Press, 2023), Professor Lu has engaged in cutting-edge study of everyday life that sheds light on larger issues such as modernity and state-society dynamics. Fittingly, Professor Lu has gained international recognition as a leading scholar in the China field with prestigious fellowship awards in the U.S., Europe, and beyond. He is also the editor of a sixteen-volume series titled The Culture and Customs of Asia and the co-founder of the China Research Center, an interuniversity center, in Atlanta. In these and many other leadership capacities, Professor Lu has significantly enriched the China studies field and promoted the understanding of Chinese history and culture in both the scholarly and public domains.

Professor Xi Wang

Professor Xi Wang’s longstanding dedication to CHUS is exemplary. As a founding member and the second president of CHUS, Professor Wang contributed to the establishment of CHUS as a scholarly society. During his decade-long tenure as a lead editor of the Chinese Historical Review (2003-2014), Professor Wang’s tremendous effort helped transform CHR into a highly reputable academic journal. Professor Wang co-edited Discovering History in America and Teaching History in America, two memoirs of CHUS members published by Peking University Press that solidified CHUS’s reputation as an influential overseas academic organization among Chinese readers. In fall 2024, Professor Wang digitized the CHUS archives from its pre-internet age, about 50 PDF folders and a total of more than 7,000 pages. These files cover the founding of CHUS and its first decade and are highly valuable for the preservation of CHUS history and future research. Professor Wang completed this monumental project with his characteristically high standards and commitment.

Professor Wang has authored, translated, and edited more than a dozen books and published numerous articles in and beyond his fields of African American history, Civil War and Reconstruction, and American constitutionalism. His monographs, The Trial of Democracy:  Northern Republicans and Blacks Suffrage, 1860–1910 (University of Georgia Press, 1997, 2012) and Principles and Compromises: The Spirit and Practice of the American Constitution (Peking University Press, 2000, 2005, 2014) are widely considered groundbreaking works in his fields. Professor Wang has helped shape the academic discipline of U.S. studies in China. He built institutional partnership between American and Chinese universities and academic organizations, which enabled American scholars to teach in China and Chinese students to participate in academic activities in the U.S. As a prestigious Changjiang Scholar, Professor Wang also taught U.S. history at Peking University for more than a decade and trained graduate students there in U.S. history. His contribution to U.S.-China educational and scholarly exchanges is unparalleled. In 2022, Professor Wang was honored by his colleagues at IUP as a Distinguished University Professor.