Contact Information
2090A Foreign Language Building
707 South Mathews
Urbana, Illinois 61801
Office Hours
Research Interests
cultures of law in China, legal history, nationality law, gender studies, gender and law, medical history of ethics and law, borderland studies, ethnic groups in China, U.S.-East Asia relationship, Sino-Japanese relationship
Research Description
I primarily study the historical roots of contemporary problems, and particularly problems concerning the making, shifting, and lifting of boundaries and borders in Chinese society. I pay special attention to peoples and places on the margins, intending to enrich our understanding of China as a historical concept and to bridge the gap between Asia-based and Europe/U.S.-based studies on common problems about social boundaries and legal borders. I have endeavored to cross the historical marks that conventionally distinguish “modern” from “pre-modern” or "contemporary" from "historical," and to traverse the existing national borders that define China.
Education
PhD, History Department, University of California Santa Barbara
LLM, College of Law, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Grants
- 2022-2023 Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program grant, UIUC
- Summer 2021 Illinois Global Institute Curriculum Development Grant, “Yellow Peril Redux: From Coolies to Cars, Trade Wars and Coronavirus (1800s-present)”
- 2019-2020 Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Research Cluster
- 2015-2018 Title VI Grant for course development, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
- 2014-2016 INTERSECT Grant, Cultures of Law in Global Contexts project
- 2013-2014 Center for Advanced Studies Residence Fellow, CAS Initiative on Cultures of Law in Global Contexts, UIUC
- 2013-2015 Andrew Mellon New Directions Grant
- 2012-2016 Conrad Humanities Scholar Award, UIUC
- 2012-2014 INTERSECT Grant, Cultures of Law in Global Contexts project
- 2011-2012 ACLS Grant, Research in Humanities in China-NEH
- 2011-2012 Illinois Program of Research in Humanities Fellowship, UIUC
- 2009-2010 Law and Society in China, Focal Point Initiative Grant, UIUC, Graduate College (Collaboration with Law faculty)
Awards and Honors
2012-2016 Conrad Humanities Scholar Award
2013-2014 Resident Associate, Center for Advanced Studies, UIUC
2011-2012 IPRH Fellowship, UIUC
2009-2010 Beckman Fellowship, Center for Advanced Studies, UIUC
2003-2004 An-Wang postdoctoral fellowship, Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University
Courses Taught
External Links
Outreach and Publicity
NPR report by Emily Feng on Chinese nationality law: "For some athletes, what is Chinese is not so simple", Feb. 13, 2022.
Highlighted Publications
Shao, D. (2022). Red Star over Medicine: Redefining State-Doctor-Patient Relationship in the Early CPC History (1920s-1950s). East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 14. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18752160.2021.1971369?journalCode=teas20
Shao, D. (2017). Manchuria in Modern East Asia, 1600s–1949. In D. Ludden (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.141
Shao, D. (2011). Remote Homeland, Recovered Borderland: Manchus, Manchoukuo, and Manchuria, 1907–1985. (The World of East Asia). University of Hawai'i Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824860226
Shao, D. (2009). Chinese by Definition: Nationality Law, Jus Sanguinis, and State Succession, 1909-1980. Twentieth-Century China, 35(1), 4-28. https://doi.org/10.1353/tcc.0.0019
Shao, D. (2009). Borders and Borderlands. In A. Iriye, & P.-Y. Saunier (Eds.), The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History (pp. 99a-102b). Palgrave Macmillan.
Recent Publications
Judge, J., Kurtz, J., Sela, O., Shao, D., & Shapiro, H. (2024). The Sinosphere and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Joshua Fogel. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111383514
Dan, S. (2023). Red Star over Medicine: Redefining Doctor-Patient Relationship in Early CPC History (1930s–1960s). East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 17(2), 170-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/18752160.2021.1971369
Shao, D. (2022). Red Star over Medicine: Redefining State-Doctor-Patient Relationship in the Early CPC History (1920s-1950s). East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 14. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18752160.2021.1971369?journalCode=teas20
Shao, D. (2017). Manchuria in Modern East Asia, 1600s–1949. In D. Ludden (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.141
Shao, D. (2014). Review: Pär Kristoffer Cassel's Grounds of Judgment: Extraterritoriality and Imperial Power in Nineteenth-Century China and Japan. American Historical Review, 119(2), 488-489. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/119.2.488