Jonathan Lipman

Felicia Gressitt Bock Professor of Asian Studies

Specialization
East Asian history, especially the modern period; Central Asian and Islamic studies; Asian studies; international relations; Jewish studies.

He can discuss Islamic mysticism; read texts in Hebrew, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese (not to mention German and French); explain U.S.–Chinese relations; detail the history of women in Japan; and recommend the best Chinese dishes (resembling food served in China, that is, not the American-style knockoffs he describes as "gloppy brown sauce" and "bright red sweet-and-sour goo"). In fact, it's hard to find an area of Asian history or culture that Jonathan Lipman can't cover.

Author of Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998) and coauthor of Imperial Japan: Expansion and War, A Humanities Approach to Japanese History, Part III (Boulder: Social Science Education Consortium, 1995), Lipman has also edited two volumes on China and published dozens of articles, book chapters, papers, and reviews on a wide range of subjects. He is currently directing a project to create a new textbook, Modern East Asia: An Integrated History, for high school and college students.

The range of his courses and lectures is equally impressive, covering vast geography and time periods, from Islam and Muslims in China to World War II in the Pacific. Whatever the course, he delivers brilliant lectures that challenge students' cultural preconceptions and spread his delight in the discipline of history itself.

A regular lecturer nationally and internationally and winner of numerous grants, including a major grant for faculty development in East Asian studies at the Five Colleges (Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, and Amherst Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst), Lipman is a dedicated leader in understanding and teaching Asian culture and history.

News Links:

"Read All about This Year's Faculty Award Winners," College Street Journal, April 26, 2002

"Lee, Lipman, Morgan, and Smith to Receive Faculty Awards," College Street Journal, April 19, 2002

"Asian Studies Class Satisfies the Appetites of J-Term Students," College Street Journal, January 26, 2001