Workshop: Cultural History and Everyday Technology in Early Modern China

Catalog description

This research seminar explores daily life and technology in early modern China (1500-1900), a period of major change marked by commercial growth, urban expansion, and new consumer culture. Students examine how different groups—merchants, artisans, scholars, women, and peasants—experienced these transformations through the lens of material culture and everyday practices. The course investigates how objects, tools, and daily routines both reflected and shaped broader social changes. As a research workshop, students develop historical research skills by analyzing primary sources and creating original projects that contribute to understanding this pivotal period in global history.