Lan Wu

  • Assistant Professor of History
Lan Wu

Lan's research interests lie in the intersection of religion and state formation in early modern China. Her book, "Common Ground: Tibetan Buddhist Expansion and Qing China's Inner Asia," was published by Columbia University Press in August 2022. It approaches to Qing China from ground up and explores how marginal communities in Inner Asia availed themselves of state resources as the expanding empire took shape in the eighteenth century. Lan’s archival research trips have taken her to various libraries, archives, and monasteries in Asia and North America in recent years.

At Mount Holyoke College, Lan offers introductory courses on China and East Asia as well as specialized courses on gender and the Silk Road. She is affiliated with the Asian Studies Program.

Additional publications may be found on Lan Wu's website.

Areas of Expertise

Borderlands, ethnicity, and state formation in China; early modern empires, transnational history in East Asia; Buddhism in East Asia

Education

  • Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A., Columbia University
  • BA East China Jiaotong University, PRC

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent Campus News

Erin Hancock ’20’s lifelong interest in weaving and folk arts came together when she found a 200-year-old loom in Mount Holyoke College’s Skinner Museum.

Recent Publications

Wu, L. (2022). Common ground: Tibetan Buddhist expansion and Qing China’s Inner Asia. Columbia University Press.

Wu, L. Review of “The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China: A Political History of the Tibetan Institution of Reincarnation”, New York: Columbia University Press, 2015, by Peter Schwieger, Journal of Asian History, (Nov, 2016): 159-162.

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