Thomas Mullaney
Thomas S. Mullaney is Professor of History and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, by courtesy. He is also the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress, and a Guggenheim Fellow.
He is the author or lead editor of 7 books, including The Chinese Typewriter (winner of the Fairbank prize), Your Computer is on Fire, Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China, and the forthcoming The Chinese Computer—the first comprehensive history of Chinese-language computing.
His writings have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Technology & Culture, Aeon, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, and his work has been featured in the LA Times, The Atlantic, the BBC, and in invited lectures at Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and more. He holds a PhD from Columbia University.
Books
Articles/Chapters
Featured News
Contact
Curated Exhibitions
Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age
- Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) (New York City)
- San Diego Chinese Historical Museum
- San Francisco International Airport
- Stanford University
Facing the World: Type Design in Global Perspective
Recent & Forthcoming Publications
The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press, 2017 | Available Here)
“Quote Unquote Language Reform: Punctuation Reform and the Horizontalization of Chinese” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 29, no.2 (Fall 2017): 206-250.
“Controlling the Kanjisphere: The Rise of the Sino-Japanese Typewriter and the Birth of CJK” Journal of Asian Studies (August 2016).
Recent & Upcoming Talks
“The New Chinese Exclusion: Chinese Computing in the Age of Alphanumeric Hegemony” (Rutgers University, March 30, 2017)
“A War Between the Living and the Dead: On Grave Relocation in Contemporary China.” (University of Pennsylvania, March 27, 2017)
Keynote Address. SIGCIS Conference (Computer History Museum, March 18, 2017)
“Chinese Computing and the Future of I.T.” (San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, February 25, 2017)
“Machine Learning: An Historian’s Guide to Reading Keyboards, Code, and other Technological Objects.” (UCSD, February 24, 2017)
“Ecologies of Chinese Computing: A Guided Tour through Recent History.” (Carnegie Mellon University, February 7, 2017)
“Hot Metal Empire: Type Design, Media, and Empire in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.” (University of Pittsburgh, February 6, 2017)
Opening Lecture for “Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age” (San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, January 21, 2017)
“Design.” (Information and the Humanities Conference, Pennsylvania State University, October 29, 2016)
“Digital Humanities for Skeptics: A Report from the DHAsia Program at Stanford University.” (Columbia University, October 25, 2016)
“The Font that Never Was: Linotype, Monotype, and the “Phonetic Chinese Alphabet” of 1921.” ATypI Annual Conference, Warsaw, Poland, September 16, 2016)
“How to Spy on 600 Million People.” (Computer History Museum, July 7, 2016)
Recent Awards
John K. Fairbank Prize
Guggenheim Fellowship
Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship
Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar (for DHAsia)
Stanford VPTL Major Grant in support of "Massively Multiplayer Humanities" 2017 Project
Recipient of the 3-Year National Science Foundation Science, Technology and Society Award
Winner of the 2013 Abbot Payson Usher Prize
Recipient of 2011 American Historical Association Pacific Branch Award for “Best First Book on Any Historical Subject”