Weicong Duan

Research Interests

My research interests have focused on China in world history since the fourteenth century. I study the intersection of war, technology, and the economy; and I am particularly interested in the transformation of Confucian government in late imperial China in the gunpowder age.

In my dissertation, I use Ming China (1368-1644) as a case study of the gunpowder state, challenging prevalent theories about state formation and empire building that have often been derived from European and Islamic experiences in the early modern period.

Awards

Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts & Science, Washington University in St. Louis, 2015-2016

T.A. Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis: 2014-2015.

China CSC scholarship, China, 2010-2014.

University Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis, 2010-2014.

Mellon Dissertation Seminar Fellow, summer 2011; 2016.  

Richard W. Davis Grant, Washington University in St. Louis, 2013.

University Fellowship for Mongolian Study in Inner Mongolian, China, summer 2012; at Indiana University Bloomington, summer 2011.