Andrew Chittick is the E. Leslie Peter Professor of East Asian Humanities and History at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL. A native of California, he received his PhD in History from the University of Michigan in 1997. He is the author of over twenty published articles and two full-length books: Patronage and Community in Medieval China: The Xiangyang Garrison, 400-600 CE (SUNY Press, 2010) and The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History (Oxford University Press, 2020). The latter book introduced a ground-breaking new perspective on the history and political identity of what is now south China in the early medieval period (3rd-6th centuries CE), including its evolving ethnic identity, innovative military and economic systems, and engagement with broader Sino-Southeast Asian and Buddhist cultures.
Chittick, a Visiting Research Scholar at ISAW for the 2022-23 academic year, has previously held research fellowships with the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. His current research explores the development of maritime interchanges between Southeast Asia and the Sinitic world of East Asia in the first millennium CE. Most recent research on Asian maritime exchange has emphasized the Indian Ocean, or Chinese and European-dominated trade in the second millennium. Work on Sino-Southeast Asian exchange in first millennium has often been an afterthought, typically framed through the lens of the “great civilizations” of China, India, and the Middle East, while underplaying the role of Southeast Asia. In his time at ISAW Dr. Chittick will apply his fresh approach to the history of medieval East Asia to new translations and interpretations of early Sinitic textual evidence, combining them with recent Southeast Asian archaeological evidence, and GIS modelling of maritime networks. The resulting work will highlight the impressive scale and impact of early maritime trade on Asian material and political culture, and the central role played by Southeast Asian mariners and societies.