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Xiaoyan Ren

Profile picture for Xiaoyan Ren

Contact Information

Literature, Cultures, and Linguistics Building, Room 2024
PhD student, TA

Biography

I was born in Shandong, China. Before coming to UIUC, I did my undergrad at Nanjing University and my masters at Peking University.

Research Interests

History of Science and Technologies

Information History

Modern-state Building

Personal Identification Practices

East Asian History

Research Description

I'm a historian of East Asian information technologies, particularly the technologies used for identifying and documenting human individuals, e.g. ID cards, mugshots, fingerprints, signatures, names, personal seals, etc. My current project, tentatively titled "Cards of Modernity: Chinese IDs in the Global Information Age," explores the modern-state building efforts in early-twentieth-century China through the lens of ID cards. Situating in the global trend of identifying humans with paper documents, I explore how the Chinese government justified and implemented a national ID card policy, and how people resisted and negotiated this small information gadget that tremendously shaped their everyday experiences. 

Education

M.A. in English Literature, Peking University

B.A. in English Literature, Nanjing University

Grants

EALC Summer Research Fellowship, 2023

EALC Summer Research Fellowship, 2024

Stanford East Asian Library Travel Fund, 2024-2025

Awards and Honors

TA Ranked as Excellent by Students, 2022 Fall, 2023 Fall

Ralph S. Tyler Award for Best General Education Teaching Assistant, 2024

Courses Taught

EALC 250: Introduction to Japanese Culture (as Teaching Assistant)

EALC/CWL 230: Popular Cultures of Contemporary East Asia (as Teaching Assistant)

EALC/ANTH 285: Introduction to Korea through Film (as Teaching Assistant)

EALC 365: Contemporary Korean Society (as Teaching Assistant)

At Peking University: Introduction to the Bible (as Teaching Assistant)

Additional Campus Affiliations

Asian Study Group