Yan Xu, Ph.D.

Biography

Faculty Member Since 2014.

Yan Xu, Ph.D. is the eSpelman Online Program Director and Associate Professor of History.

Education

• Ph.D., M.A., The Ohio State University
• B.A., Nanjing University, China

Courses Taught

• SHIS 202: Research Methods in History
• SHIS 241: Traditional China and Japan
• SHIS 242: Modern China and Japan
• SHIS 302: Pre-Modern World
• SHIS 343: Modern Chinese History
• SHIS 344: Women in Modern China (Honors Elective)
• SHIS 386: Women and Gender in World War II
• SHIS 492: Senior Honors Thesis
• SHIS 443: War and Revolution in Modern China
• SHIS 444: World War II in East Asia: History and Film
• AS 200: Introduction to Asian Studies
• FYE 101: First Year Experience

Research Interests

Military history; women and gender; political Chinese history; Japanese history; women in China; women and war; world history; Asian history; history research methods; world wars in history and literature

Select Publications

Books

Xu, Yan. "The Soldier Image and State Building in Modern China," 1924-1945. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2019.

Xu, Yan, and Jeffrey Copeland, ed. "The YMCA at War: Collaboration and Conflict During the World Wars." Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018.

Book Chapters

“Serving Our Wounded Heroes: Military Welfare Programs of the Chinese YMCA during the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945,” in The YMCA at War: Collaboration and Conflict During the World Wars, ed. Yan Xu and Jeffrey Copeland (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018).

News and Notes

Recipient of the 2019 Spelman Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship