Staff profile

Dr James Leibold

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

SS 321, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA East Asian Studies (Wittenberg University), MA East Asian Studies (Washington University), PhD Chinese history (University of Southern California).

Membership of professional associations

Australian Association of Asian Studies; Chinese Studies Association of Australia; China Regional Editor, Asian Studies Review, 2009-; Member, La Trobe University Curriculum Renewal Taskforce, 2008.

Area of study

Asian Studies
Politics

Brief profile

Dr Leibold is a political historian of modern China with specific research expertise on the role of ethnicity, race and national identity in modern Chinese history and society, and the intersections between historical memory and ethnic identity in contemporary China. His 2007 book, Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism, explores the role of the frontier and its indigenes in fashioning the contours, boundaries, and meanings of modern Chinese identity. His current research projects include a critical analysis of the category of “Han” identity in modern China; an analysis of Han cybernationalism; and an exploration of how the Chinese Internet is reshaping identity politics, practice and discourse in contemporary Chinese society. He is currently the convenor of the Asian Studies Program at La Trobe and lecturers on the history and contemporary politics of modern China.

Research interests

Asian History

- Role of ethnicity, race and national identity in contemporary Chinese history and society

International Relations

- Politicisation of history in contemporary Asia and Australia-Asia relations

Teaching units

  • AST1ICI - Introduction to Asia: China and India.
  • AST2/3EAS - East Asian Societies: Society and State in Japan and China.
  • POL2/3NAS - Nations and States.
  • POL2/3CIW - China in the world: A re-emerging superpower?

Recent publications

Books

  • Leibold, J. and Chen Yangbin, eds. (under contract). Minority Education in China: Balancing Unity and Diversity in an Era of Critical Pluralism (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press).
  • Mullaney, Thomas, James Leibold, Stéphane Gros, and Eric Vanden Brussche, eds. (2012). Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation and Identity of China's Majority (Berkeley: University of California Press). [ebook link].
  • Leibold, J. (2007). Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism: How the Qing Frontier and its Indigenes Became Chinese. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. (Book details)

Refereed Articles

  • Leibold, J. (forthcoming). "Xinhai Remembered: From Han Racial Revolution to Great Revival of the Chinese Nation," Asian Ethnicity.
  • Leibold, J. (2011). “Blogging Alone: China, the Internet, and the Democratic Illusion? The Journal of Asian Studies 70.4: 1023-1041 (pdf version – copyright Cambridge University Press).
  • Leibold, J. (2010). “More than a Category: Han Racial Nationalism on the Chinese Internet,” The China Quarterly 203 (September): 539-559 (pdf version - copyright Cambridge University Press).
  • Leibold, J. (2010). “The Beijing Olympics and China’s Conflicted National Form,” The China Journal 63 (January): 1-24 (pdf version - copyright Contemporary China Centre Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies).
  • Leibold, J. (2006). 'Competing Narratives of Racial Unity in Republican China: From the Yellow Emperor to Peking Man', Modern China 32.2 (April): 181-220 (pdf version – copyright Sage Publications).
  • Leibold, J. (2005). 'Un-mapping Republican China’s Tibetan Frontier: Politics, Militarism and Ethnicity along the Kham/Xikang Border', The Chinese Historical Review 12.2 (Fall): 191-227. (Preprint version or published version).
  • Leibold, J. (2004). 'Positioning "minzu" within Sun Yat-sen’s Discourse of Minzuzhuyi', Journal of Asian History 38.1-2: 163-213. (published version).

Book Chapters

  • Leibold, J. (2012). “Searching for Han: Early Twentieth-Century Narratives of Chinese Origins and Development,” in Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation and Identity of China's Majority, eds. Thomas Mullaney, James Leibold, Stéphane Gros and Eric Vanden Bussche, pp 210-233 (Berkeley: University of California Press). (preprint pdf)
  • Leibold, J. (2012). “'Filling in the Nation: The Spatial Trajectory of Prehistoric Archaeology in Twentieth-Century China,” in Transforming History: The Making of a Modern Academic Discipline in Twentieth Century China, eds. Brian Moloughney and Peter Zarrow, pp. 333-71 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press). (preprint pdf)
  • Leibold, J. (2003). 'Rethinking Kuomintang National Minority Policy: The National Question and Regional Warlordism on the Early 20th Century Chinese Frontier'. In Cindy Yik-Yi Chu and Ricardo K.S. Mak (eds) China Reconstructs, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, pp.103-24 (Preprint pdf or published version)

Other Articles, Essays and Reports

  • Leibold, J. (2012). “Towards a Second Generation of Ethnic Policy?” China Brief, 12.3 [Online], 6 July.
  • Leibold, J. (2012). “Rethinking Ethnic Policy,” China Policy Brief [Online], 11 April 2012.
  • Leibold, J. (2012). “Can China Have a Melting Pot?” The Diplomat [Online], 23 May.
  • Leibold, J. (2012). “Digital Chinese Whispers: Death Threats and Rumors Inside China’s Online Marketplace of Ideas,” The China Beat [online], 17 January.
  • Leibold, J. (2010). “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing? The Book the Han Nationalist Love to Loath,” The China Beat [online], 7 January.
  • Leibold, J. (2009). ‘Identification and Belonging’, Encyclopaedia of Modern China, volume 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons): 281-3 (preprint pdf)
  • Leibold, J. (2009). ‘The minzu shibboleth’, Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) Newsletter, 38 (July): 4-7. (published pdf)
  • Leibold, J. (2009). ‘The Xinjiang Riots: Tried Paradigms, Fresh Tensions’, The China Beat [online], 14 July.
  • Leibold, J. (2008). 'Whose Peoples’ Games? Ethnic Identity and the 2008 Beijing Olympics', The China Beat [online], 3 December.
  • Leibold, J. (2008). 'Picking at the Wound: Nanjing 1937-8', Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies [online], 15 November.
  • Leibold, J. (2008). ‘Duelling Dreams at the 2008 Beijing Olympics’, The China Beat [online]
  • Leibold, J. (2008). ‘Time to Douse the Flame’, newmatilda.com [online]
  • Leibold, J. (2005). 'The Australia-China FTA: What’s at Stake?' La Trobe Forum, 25 (Autumn): 20-21.
  • Leibold, J. and Milner, A. (2004). 'Task Force Report: Positioning Australia in the Region and on the Global Map'. Report of the First Annual Future Summit, Sydney, pp.86-93.
  • Leibold, J. (2001). 'Features Article: No Joy for the Out-of-luck Club', South China Morning Post, 21 April: 1-3.
  • Leibold, J. (2000). 'Historical Spaces: Star Bright—Hong Kong’s Star Ferry', Face the East, 2: 56-8.
  • Leibold, J. (1999). 'Historical Spaces: Sun Yat-sen’s Former French Concession Residence', Face the East, 1: 34-8.
  • Leibold, J. (1999).'The Double Edged Sword of Chinese Nationalism: Reactions to the Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade', La Trobe Forum (Spring): 21-22.

Book Reviews

  • Leibold, J. (2010). ‘Communist Multiculturalism: Ethnic Revival in Southwest China by Susan McCarthy’, The China Journal 64 (July).
  • Leibold, J. (2008). ‘Failure and Chinese Nationalism’, H-Net Reviews. [online]
  • Leibold, J. (2006). 'Review of Historicizing Online Politics: Telegraphy, The Internet and Political Participation in China by Zhou Yongming', Asian Studies Review, 30.2 (July).
  • Leibold, J. (2006). 'Review of China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 by Peter Zarrow', The China Journal, 56 (June): 184-86.
  • Leibold, J. (2006). 'Review of On the Margins of Tibet: Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier by Åshild Kolås and Monika Thowsen', China Information, 20.2 (June): 331-333.
  • Leibold, J. (2005). 'Review of Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service by Fredrick Wakeman', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 7.1 (June): 168-71.
  • Leibold, J. (1999). 'Chinese Archives: Review Article', Journal of Oriental Studies, 34.2.

Professional Service:

  • Expert Assessor for the Australian Research Council (ARC) on Discovery projects related to both modern Chinese history and contemporary politics, 2011
  • Expert Assessor for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada in modern Chinese history, 2010
  • Invited to review book manuscripts for Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, University of British Columbia Press, Palgrave Macmillian
  • Invited to review article manuscript for The China Journal, Modern China, Twentieth Century China, The Journal of Asian Studies, etc.
  • China book Review editor and then Regional Editor of Asian Studies Review
  • La Trobe University Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, 2008.