Professor Henrietta Harrison
I am a historian of modern China, who specialises in social and cultural history. For my research I enjoy talking to old people in Chinese villages as well as reading books and documents and much of my work has been about ordinary people and their everyday lives. I am now researching what it was like to live through China's communist revolution in 1949. At present I am particularly interested in nursery schools and popular songs as well as land reform and the lives of soldiers. In the past I wrote a book about a Confucian teacher living through the early years of the 20th century and another about people’s lives in an entirely Catholic village, both of these were about Shanxi province. My most recent book stepped beyond this to look at the history of interpreters and the dangers of their profession as China faced the rise of the British empire in the late 18th and early 19th century.
In addition, as well as teaching in the BA Chinese for our two undergraduate core courses on the History and Culture of East Asia and on Modern China, I also teach some Classical Chinese and offer undergraduate options on ‘China and the World’ and ‘Life in China under Mao’. I also co-teach an option on the History and Historiography of Modern China which is open to students on the MPhil Modern Chinese Studies, the MSc Contemporary China Studies and the MSt Global and Imperial History.
From September 2025 I will be chair of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for three years. During this time my teaching will be covered by other members of the faculty, but I will still be the tutor for Chinese in Pembroke with the help of our Stanley Ho Junior Research Fellow.
Henrietta Harrison is Professor of Modern Chinese Studies in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford and Stanley Ho Tutorial Fellow in Chinese History at Pembroke College. She is a Fellow of British Academy. Before coming to Oxford she was a lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds, and a professor in the Department of History at Harvard University. Her books include The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire (Princeton University Press, 2021) which won the Kenshur Prize in Eighteenth Century Studies and was shortlisted for the Cundill and Wolfson prizes, The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village 1857-1942 (Stanford University Press, 2005) and The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village (University of California Press, 2013).
EMPLOYMENT
Oxford University, Professor, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 2012-
Harvard University, Professor, Department of History, 2006-2012
University of Leeds, Lecturer in Chinese, Department of East Asian Studies, 1999-2006
St Anne's College, Oxford, Fulford Junior Research Fellow, 1996-1998
EDUCATION
St Antony's College, Oxford, D.Phil in Oriental Studies, 1996
Harvard University, M.A. Regional Studies of East Asia, 1992
Newnham College, Cambridge, B.A. Classics, 1989
FELLOWSHIPS
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard, 2010-2011
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2001-2002
British Academy Scholarship, Oxford University, 1992-1996
British Council Scholarship, Nanjing University, 1993-1994
Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, Harvard University, 1989-1992
HONOURS
Fellow of the British Academy 2014-
The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
The Making of the Republican Citizen: Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911-1929. Contemporary China Institute Series, Oxford University Press, 2000.
China: Inventing the Nation. London: Arnold, 2001.
Link to departmental page: Henrietta Harrison (沈艾娣) | Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Professor Henrietta Harrison
I am a historian of modern China, who specialises in social and cultural history. For my research I enjoy talking to old people in Chinese villages as well as reading books and documents and much of my work has been about ordinary people and their everyday lives. I am now researching what it was like to live through China's communist revolution in 1949. At present I am particularly interested in nursery schools and popular songs as well as land reform and the lives of soldiers. In the past I wrote a book about a Confucian teacher living through the early years of the 20th century and another about people’s lives in an entirely Catholic village, both of these were about Shanxi province. My most recent book stepped beyond this to look at the history of interpreters and the dangers of their profession as China faced the rise of the British empire in the late 18th and early 19th century.
In addition, as well as teaching in the BA Chinese for our two undergraduate core courses on the History and Culture of East Asia and on Modern China, I also teach some Classical Chinese and offer undergraduate options on ‘China and the World’ and ‘Life in China under Mao’. I also co-teach an option on the History and Historiography of Modern China which is open to students on the MPhil Modern Chinese Studies, the MSc Contemporary China Studies and the MSt Global and Imperial History.
From September 2025 I will be chair of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for three years. During this time my teaching will be covered by other members of the faculty, but I will still be the tutor for Chinese in Pembroke with the help of our Stanley Ho Junior Research Fellow.
Henrietta Harrison is Professor of Modern Chinese Studies in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford and Stanley Ho Tutorial Fellow in Chinese History at Pembroke College. She is a Fellow of British Academy. Before coming to Oxford she was a lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds, and a professor in the Department of History at Harvard University. Her books include The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire (Princeton University Press, 2021) which won the Kenshur Prize in Eighteenth Century Studies and was shortlisted for the Cundill and Wolfson prizes, The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man’s Life in a North China Village 1857-1942 (Stanford University Press, 2005) and The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village (University of California Press, 2013).
EMPLOYMENT
Oxford University, Professor, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 2012-
Harvard University, Professor, Department of History, 2006-2012
University of Leeds, Lecturer in Chinese, Department of East Asian Studies, 1999-2006
St Anne's College, Oxford, Fulford Junior Research Fellow, 1996-1998
EDUCATION
St Antony's College, Oxford, D.Phil in Oriental Studies, 1996
Harvard University, M.A. Regional Studies of East Asia, 1992
Newnham College, Cambridge, B.A. Classics, 1989
FELLOWSHIPS
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard, 2010-2011
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2001-2002
British Academy Scholarship, Oxford University, 1992-1996
British Council Scholarship, Nanjing University, 1993-1994
Kennedy Memorial Scholarship, Harvard University, 1989-1992
HONOURS
Fellow of the British Academy 2014-
The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village 1857-1942. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.
The Making of the Republican Citizen: Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911-1929. Contemporary China Institute Series, Oxford University Press, 2000.
China: Inventing the Nation. London: Arnold, 2001.
Link to departmental page: Henrietta Harrison (沈艾娣) | Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies