In 2020, the Early Medieval China Group established a Graduate Student Award to encourage young scholars working in all disciplinary areas of Early Medieval China Studies to contribute to our annual conference and to engage with other members of the group.

The inaugural award, presented at the 2021 virtual conference, went to Soojung Han, a PhD Student in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. At the conference, Soojung introduced her fascinating and critical research on “Empress Dowager Lou the Kingmaker: Identity Politics in the Northern Qi (550–577).” Soojung’s talk sparked much interest and a lively discussion.

We are looking forward to receiving many applications from graduate students for conferences in the years to come! In the meantime, please have your name added to our mailing list by sending a message to Antje Richter.

PAST RECIPIENTS: 

2025:

Deyi Zhang, PhD Student, UC Davis, “The Cricket in the Hall: Minuscule and the Sense of Spatiotemporal in Pre-Tang Poetry” 

Julian Gee, PhD Student, Harvard University, “To Expel the Rong: Alien Expulsion Proposals and Concepts of the Other in Third-century China”

2024:

Michael Norton, PhD Student, Harvard University, “Statues of Light: The Iconography of the Five Tan Yao Caves Revisited” 

Meng Tong, PhD Student, Kress Foundation Department of Art History, the University of Kansas, “Monk Travelers on the Forgotten Road: Patronage of the Early Fifth-century Buddhist Cleric Donors at Binglingsi Cave 169”

2023: 

Suiyun Pan, PhD Student, Harvard University, “Approaching the Sea: Xie Lingyun’s Poetic Trajectory Toward a New Understanding of (Un)appreciation”

June Manjun Zhang, PhD Student at the University of Cambridge, “Playing and Prestige: The Significance of Weiqi in Early Medieval China”

2022:

Zhao Yi, PhD Student, Kress Foundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas. "Heaven, Yellow Springs and Buddhism: Axis Mundi Jars in the Wu Kingdom (222–280 CE) and the Western Jin Dynasty (266–316 CE)"

2021: 

Soojung Han, PhD Student, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University. “Empress Dowager Lou the Kingmaker: Identity Politics in the Northern Qi (550–577).”