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Prasenjit Duara CV

Oscar L. Tang Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies
History
PO Box 90719, Durham, NC 27708
212A Classroom Building, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Overview


Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He was born and educated in India and received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was previously Professor and Chair of the Dept of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies at the University of Chicago (1991-2008). Subsequently, he became Raffles Professor of Humanities and Director, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore (2008-2015).

In 1988, he published Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 (Stanford Univ Press) which won the Fairbank Prize of the AHA and the Levenson Prize of the AAS, USA. Among his other books are Rescuing History from the Nation (U Chicago 1995), Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (Rowman 2003) and most recently, The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future  (Cambridge 2014). He has edited Decolonization: Now and Then (Routledge, 2004) and co-edited A Companion to Global Historical Thought with Viren Murthy and  Andrew Sartori (John Wiley, 2014). His work has been widely translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and the European languages.

Office Hours


Usually Tuesdays 2-4 pm; but please make an email appointment to see me ahead of time.  Classroom Building 212A

Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations


Oscar L. Tang Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies · 2026 - Present History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor Emeritus in the Department of History · 2026 - Present History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Recent News Items


Published November 9, 2023
New Yorker Writer Peter Hessler Speaks about Reporting in China and Egypt, Nov. 9 & 10
Published September 6, 2017
Prasenjit Duara Awarded Honorary Doctorate
Published May 5, 2016
Duke Awards Distinguished Professorships, Inducts New Bass Society Members

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Recent Scholarly Works


Biocultural Diversity in Monsoon Asia: The Mekong and the Forests

Journal article International Journal of Politics Culture and Society · March 1, 2026 Deforestation and dam building together with climate change along the Lancang/Mekong have upended centuries and even millennia of biocultural management. The river and the rainforests in this part of monsoon Asia provide the livelihood for over 70 million ... Full text Open Access Cite
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Education


Harvard University · 1983 Ph.D.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (India) · 1974 M.Phil.
University of Delhi (India) · 1972 M.A.
University of Delhi (India) · 1970 B.A.