Gregory Sattler

Gregory Sattler is a scholar of maritime Asia with a research focus on migration, trade, networks, and interethnic cooperation. His work utilizes methodologies from the study of history, archaeology, religion, art history, and literature. He received his PhD in History from UCLA, his MA in Japanese Studies from Kyushu University, and his BA in History from National Taiwan University. Some of the fellowships Gregory previously received include the National Library of Singapore's Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation's Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and the Rotary Foundation's Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Scholarship. His language proficiencies are Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Malay, and he also has a distinct interest in Chinese dialects and regional languages.

Gregory's current book project is an early history of Chinese travelers and communities across the span of maritime Asia. This project examines textual sources written in Classical Chinese, Arabic, Kanbun, Old Javanese, and Old Malay, as well as an extensive archaeological record of port sites and shipwrecks. It provides knowledge about the earliest Chinese communities overseas, how and why Chinese people first took to the seas in large numbers, the people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds Chinese seafarers worked with, and the region-based networks that organized and patronized maritime trade. Some of Gregory's published articles include:

• "Literate Merchants in Southeast China and Overseas, c. 800–1100," T'oung Pao 111:1 (2025): 78–128.
• (with Wahyu Rizky Andhifani, Hedwi Prihatmoko, Andrea Acri, Arlo Griffiths, and Mathilde Mechling) "Maritime Links between China, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and Buddhist Monasteries in India (c. 11th–12th Centuries) in the Light of Two Fragmentary Inscribed Strips of Copper from Muara Jambi," Religions 16 (2025): pp. 1–35.
• "Temple Diplomacy, Sacred Rites, and Overseas Chinese during the Reign of Song Emperor Zhenzong (997–1022)," Religions 15 (2024): 1–27.
• "Zhedong Sea Merchants and the China-Japan Trade, ca. 800–1000 CE," Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 53 (2024): 59–92.
• "The Ideological Underpinnings of Private Trade in East Asia, ca. 800–1127," Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University 6 (2021): 41–60.

Gregory is committed to engaging with scholars, students, and the greater public around the world, and has given lectures and conference presentations in North America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Australia.