Professor
History
St. John Hall, Room 244L
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY11439
(718) 990-5231
kinkleyj@stjohns.edu
Educational Background
Ph.D., 1977, Harvard University, History and East Asian
Languages
M. A., 1971, Harvard University, Regional Studies—East Asia
A. B., 1969, University of Chicago, Geography; Phi Beta
Kappa
Profile
Jeffrey C. Kinkley is Professor of History and a founding core
faculty member of the Doctor of Arts degree in Modern World
History. He has taught at the university since 1979, after serving
two years as a Lecturer on History at Harvard. Having served as a
visiting professor at Columbia University and Rutgers, a visiting
scholar at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and honorary visiting
professor at Jishou University, Hunan, Jeffrey teaches courses at
St. John’s in World and East Asian History and in Modern Chinese
History, Literature, and Film, while doing research on the
intellectual and literary history of twentieth century China, with
emphasis on the pre-Mao and post-Mao periods. A John Simon
Guggenheim Fellow (2010) and recipient of grants from the ACLS,
NEH, and Committee on Scholarly Communication with China, he has
authored pioneering monographs published by Stanford University
Press variously on the life, times, and works of Chinese writer
Shen Congwen (1902-1988); in the field of law and humanities as
applied to China; and decoding China’s recent romans a clef about
government corruption and the law. Jeffrey has also edited,
co-edited, and translated from the Chinese six other books in
English, some of which have Chinese and bilingual editions.
Currently he is writing a book about recent epic Chinese historical
novels and their dystopian visions of modern history.
Research
Areas of Specialization
Modern Chinese Intellectual and Literary History, History through
Literature, Biography, Autobiography