Ethan Harkness

Assistant Professor
B.A., Harvard University, 1992
B.S., National Taiwan University, 1997
M.S., Brandeis University, 2000
Ph.D. East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, 2011

Ethan Harkness teaches and writes about early Chinese culture with a particular emphasis on technical topics that inform the histories of science and religion. In his methodological approach to research, he also makes extensive use of excavated manuscripts to supplement historical perspectives derived from the transmitted textual tradition. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Cosmology and the Quotidian: Day Books in Early China,” analyzes a type of almanac that circulated widely in the Chinese cultural sphere between the late fourth century and the late first century B.C., and in 2011-2012 this project will be revised for publication. For over ten years, Professor Harkness lived in Taiwan, where in addition to academic research, he actively pursued a number of interests, including bicycle touring and the Chinese strategy game of weiqi .