Dr. Ihor Pidhainy recently took the reins as Ming Studies Editor-in-Chief. He earned his PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto, and currently teaches at Marietta College, a private liberal arts college in southeast in Ohio. We caught up with Dr. Pidhainy to get his take on the world of Ming studies research. Read the full interview and download sample articles for free.
Q: What first attracted you to the Ming period of history?
A: I ran across a collection of Chinese essays from the Ming dynasty and became fascinated with the period. I read Mote’s biography of Gao Qi and saw how one could combine history and literature in the Ming. Later, when I began working on the scholar and exile, Yang Shen, I found that many of the questions I had about him and his context were to be answered from the discipline of history.
Q: What are your goals as editor-in-chief of Ming Studies?
A: To produce a good issue every journal – something scholars who deal with China studies will find of interest. To expand the range of what has been published in Ming Studies (not an easy task, though as previous editors have done a bang-up job). To produce theme-oriented issues when opportunity arises. To keep scholars up to date on what is going on in the field and with its practitioners.
Q: Which areas of new research are you most excited about in the field right now?
A: I am very excited about how well we start to know the Ming dynasty – I find the work that is being done on individuals very inspiring, particularly the detailed life studies that have been appearing in some number. Work being done on women of the Ming (and within the larger late imperial period), along with explorations of masculinity, are transforming our understanding of the time period. In addition, I’ve really enjoyed much recent specialized works, such as those that deal with publishing, intellectual activity and larger social networks.
Q: What makes Ming Studies a valuable publication for Asian-studies scholars?
It offers a couple of things. First, it is a journal in which both junior and senior scholars alike have opportunity to introduce their research. For those scholars who are just starting out in publishing, this is a great journal to send your first serious academic publication to. Feedback has always been very good and encouraging. For senior scholars, we offer the opportunity to publish something that they might not envision as part of a larger work.
We are also dedicated to the Ming dynasty, and so it is a very reliable journal for both the general reader and the teacher who wants to use a journal in the classroom. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, but fitting comfortably into an East Asian Studies model that some of us did our work in.
We also enable readers to follow what has been happening in the field of Ming studies, from conferences to art exhibits to appointments of scholars who work in the Ming period.
Q: How do you see your journal developing over the next 5-10 years?
I’m not much of a seer, so this is a fairly difficult question for me. I think that research-wise, the journal will continue to publish good and interesting (and up-to-date) research on topics within the Ming Dynasty. As the field develops, we will be there.
We will also devote issues to specialized topics/themes as opportunity arises, allowing us to serve as useful to the field in presenting in somewhat in-depth studies of a particular question.
I think that we will also become much more accessible to a somewhat wider audience with the digital platforms we are involved with. (In this, I also think that the relevance of journals in both academic research and general reading will continue to increase as access to libraries is no longer a serious question).
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Q: What first attracted you to the Ming period of history?
A: I ran across a collection of Chinese essays from the Ming dynasty and became fascinated with the period. I read Mote’s biography of Gao Qi and saw how one could combine history and literature in the Ming. Later, when I began working on the scholar and exile, Yang Shen, I found that many of the questions I had about him and his context were to be answered from the discipline of history.
Q: What are your goals as editor-in-chief of Ming Studies?
A: To produce a good issue every journal – something scholars who deal with China studies will find of interest. To expand the range of what has been published in Ming Studies (not an easy task, though as previous editors have done a bang-up job). To produce theme-oriented issues when opportunity arises. To keep scholars up to date on what is going on in the field and with its practitioners.
Q: Which areas of new research are you most excited about in the field right now?
A: I am very excited about how well we start to know the Ming dynasty – I find the work that is being done on individuals very inspiring, particularly the detailed life studies that have been appearing in some number. Work being done on women of the Ming (and within the larger late imperial period), along with explorations of masculinity, are transforming our understanding of the time period. In addition, I’ve really enjoyed much recent specialized works, such as those that deal with publishing, intellectual activity and larger social networks.
Q: What makes Ming Studies a valuable publication for Asian-studies scholars?
It offers a couple of things. First, it is a journal in which both junior and senior scholars alike have opportunity to introduce their research. For those scholars who are just starting out in publishing, this is a great journal to send your first serious academic publication to. Feedback has always been very good and encouraging. For senior scholars, we offer the opportunity to publish something that they might not envision as part of a larger work.
We are also dedicated to the Ming dynasty, and so it is a very reliable journal for both the general reader and the teacher who wants to use a journal in the classroom. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, but fitting comfortably into an East Asian Studies model that some of us did our work in.
We also enable readers to follow what has been happening in the field of Ming studies, from conferences to art exhibits to appointments of scholars who work in the Ming period.
Q: How do you see your journal developing over the next 5-10 years?
I’m not much of a seer, so this is a fairly difficult question for me. I think that research-wise, the journal will continue to publish good and interesting (and up-to-date) research on topics within the Ming Dynasty. As the field develops, we will be there.
We will also devote issues to specialized topics/themes as opportunity arises, allowing us to serve as useful to the field in presenting in somewhat in-depth studies of a particular question.
I think that we will also become much more accessible to a somewhat wider audience with the digital platforms we are involved with. (In this, I also think that the relevance of journals in both academic research and general reading will continue to increase as access to libraries is no longer a serious question).
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