Associate Professor Peng Xu from the Institute of Humanities at ShanghaiTech University has published a new monograph, The Courtesan’s Memory, Voice, and Late Ming Drama, with the University of Michigan Press (2025). This landmark study offers an interdisciplinary history of sound, performance, and female agency in Chinese theater. By centering on courtesans as key agents of theatr...

Imagine a single word evolving from a simple translation of “self-government” into the unbreakable spirit of India’s fight for freedom, a term so powerful that English couldn’t fully capture it. That’s the captivating story in a recent paper, “Swaraj (circa 1885-1922): Gandhi and the Early History of an Untranslatable Signifier,” published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, by Ass...

With funding from ShanghaiTech University, Ma Yueyang ’28, from the Institute of Humanities (IH), was selected for the inaugural International Organizations Summer Study Program in Geneva. The program aims to broaden students’ global perspectives, foster versatile students with international background, and enhance their capacity to engage in global governance.From June 22 to 29, under the guida...

“Professor, the two maps on the PPT should be swapped.” In a history class at the Institute of Humanities (IH), ShanghaiTech, Ma Yueyang ’28 noticed that two maps on the lecture slides were mismatched with their respective historical eras. Without raising his hand or raising his voice, he pointed it out directly. Associate Professor Wang Luman heard him clearly, verified the error, and promptly...

A recent paper published in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences introduces a novel approach called “mathematized phenomenology,” proposed by Assistant Professor Robert Prentner from the Institute of Humanities at ShanghaiTech University. This method seeks to directly study subjective experience using mathematical tools, challenging traditional approaches to consciousness scie...

Recently, IH research teams published two study achievements, respectively revealing the social organization structure of Neolithic settlements and the prevalence of Chenwei during the Yuan-Ming transition. The research about the social organization structure of Neolithic settlementsThe transformation of human society from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society has not only chan...