Ethan Harkness
Associate Professor
eh82@nyu.edu
(212) 998-7267
710 - 1 Wash Pl
Office Hours
Thursday 2:00-5:00 (BY APPT)
B.A., East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992
B.S., Mathematics, National Taiwan University, 1997
M.S., Mathematics, Brandeis University, 2000
Ph.D., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, 2011
Ethan Harkness teaches and writes about early Chinese culture with an 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 BC. 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.
Teaching and Research Interests
early Chinese cultural history and technical traditions (e.g. agriculture medicine calendrical science divination and structured play and games); history of science; pre-Buddhist history of religion; Chinese paleography and excavated manuscripts
Courses
2023 Spring
Competing Images of the Sage: Confucius and Lao Tzu
2023 Fall
First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: The Game of Go and the Art of War in Early China
2022 January
The Game of Go and the Art of War in Early China
2022 Fall
First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: The Game of Go and the Art of War in Early China
2021 Spring
Competing Images of the Sage: Confucius and Lao Tzu
2020 January
The Game of Go and the Art of War in Early China
2020 Spring
Omens and Oracles: Reading the Future and Retaining the Past in Early China
