Organized by Shoufu Yin and Mara Yue Du
Day 1: March 11 (Wed), 2026
Ponderosa Ballroom (6445 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC)
1:15 Opening remarks
1:30-3:10 Panel 1: Gender and Family
Chair: Patricia Ebrey
Discussant: Bruce Rusk
Soojung Han
From Kin to Pseudo-Kin: The Transformation of Kinship Politics and Diplomacy from Early Medieval to Liao-Song-Jin
Mara Yue Du
Sino-Steppe Hybridity under Mongol Rule and the Making of Gender Order in Late Imperial China
Chenxi Luo
Joining Banners through Women’s Ties: The “Voluntary Commendation” Policy, Matrilocal Practice, and the (un-)Making of Banner Households in the Early Qing Period
Shuang Chen
Litigious Agency and State Precarity among Banner Women in Nineteenth-Century Manchuria
3:10-3:30 Coffee break
3:30-5:10 Panel 2: History and Historiography
Chair: Timothy Cheek
Discussant: Charles Hartman
Tomoyasu Iiyama
Evolution of Non-Han Ancestries in North China since the Thirteenth Century
Mark Elliott
Ming Taizu on the Manchu Mind
Shoufu Yin
Why Read the Jurchen History (Jinshi金史) in Mongolian Translation?
Dorothea Heuschert-Laage
Entanglement and Disentanglement: Mongolian History Writing in the Early Twentieth Century
6:00 Dinner for Participants
Day 2: March 12 (Thu), 2026
Marine Drive Ballroom (2205 Lower Mall, Vancouver, BC)
8:50-10:30 Panel 3: Dependency and Patronage
Chair: Don Wyatt
Discussant: David Porter
Beverly Bossler
Patronage and Dependency in Song China
Sean Cronan
Kingdom Within Empire: Sovereignty and Dependency in Mongol-Yuan Yunnan (1253–1382)
Sam Bass
Slaving and Aristocratic Privilege in Qing Mongolia, 1770–1850
Xiao Chen
The Convict Labor Regime at War: Convict Soldiers in the Suppression of the Jahangir Uprising (1826–1828)
10:30-10:50: Coffee break
10:50-12:30 Panel 4: Land and Sea
Chair: Yiwen Li
Discussant: Matthew Mosca
Lina Nie
Pirates as Connectors of Sea and Land: Diplomacy and Maritime Violence among Ming China, Chosŏn Korea, and Ashikaga Japan
Chui-Joe Tham
Writing Across Land and Sea: Contemporary, Unofficial Historical Writing as Sites of Transnational Encounter in Ming-Qing Transition East Asia
Ling-wei Kung
Beyond the Water’s Edge: Reframing East Eurasian Entanglements through Inner Asian Inland-Maritime Networks
Yuanchong Wang
Beyond Borderlands and Seaways: The Nine Garrisons, the Willow Palisade, and Northeast Asian Trade Networks, 1400–1900
12:30-14:00 Lunch Buffet (on site)
14:00-15:45 Concluding Forum: The Future of East and Inner Asian Histories
• Mark Elliott
• Johan Elverskog
• James Millward
• Bruce Rusk
• Joanna Waley-Cohen
• Sixiang Wang
• Xin Wen
• Ya Zuo
Moderated by Timothy Cheek
16:00 End of the Workshop
Co-sponsors:
Centre for European Studies, UBC
Center for Chinese Research, UBC
Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, UBC
Center for Social Sciences, Cornell University
Department of Asian Studies, UBC
Department of History, UBC
Department of History, Cornell University
James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation
Jean Monnet Center for Excellence in Critical Infrastructure Studies, UBC
Public Humanities Hub, UBC
Participants
Alison Bailey
Beverly Bossler
Sam Bass
Timothy Cheek
Shuang Chen
Xiao Chen
Sean Cronan
Mara Yue Du
Kay Duffy
Patricia Ebrey
Mark Elliott
Johan Elverskog
Soojung Han
Charles Hartman
Dorothea Heuschert-Laage
Tomoyasu Iiyama
Ling-wei Kung
Yiwen Li
Chenxi Luo
James Millward
Matthew Mosca
Lina Nie
David Porter
Bruce Rusk
Leo Shin
Chui-Joe Tham
Joanna Waley-Cohen
Sixiang Wang
Yuanchong Wang
Xin Wen
Don Wyatt
Shoufu Yin
Ya Zuo
