Annie Chan

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN

DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES | INSTITUTE OF SINOLOGY

Kaulbachstr. 53, München 80539, Germany

Office: +49 (0)89 2180-5819

a.chan@lmu.de

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ch-annie

 

CURRENT RESEARCH

Pursuits: Archaeology of Inner Asia (present-day Xinjiang, southern Siberia, western Mongolia)

prehistory - early medieval period - contemporary 

pastoral production technologies; architecture and concepts of space; cross-regional transmissions and ethnogenesis; nomadic cultures, ethnography, and political ecology; imperial China and InterAsian geopolitics 

Projects:

• The archaeological microcosms of medieval China-steppe geopolitics and Inter-Asia Cosmopolitanism       (formerly Tribute, Truce and Tutelage: Chinese objects in Early Medieval Steppe Geopolitics). SSRC Transregional Research Fellowship project [https://www.ssrc.org/fellows/4AF51461-2F9F-E811-80CB-005056AB0BD9/]
• An integrated study of the cemeteries and habitation sites of Aduuchuluu in Bortala Prefecture, Xinjiang       Uyghur Autonomous Region. 2019 China National Social Science Foundation Project. PI: Cong Dexin, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
• Les peuples de Haute Asie dans l’histoire de la Chine. PI: Pierre Marsone, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale (CRCAO).
• The Turkic burials of Tunnug 1 (Arzhan 0) in Uyuk Valley. PIs: Gino Caspari, Universität Bern and University of Sydney, and Timur Sadykov, Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences.

 

EDUCATION

2011-2017Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Dissertation: Out of Place: Stone Architecture and Pastoral Nomadism in Prehistoric Inner Asia 

Committee: Nancy S. Steinhardt (advisor), Harold L. Dibble, Adam D. Smith, Katherine M. Moore

2011-2013 A.M. (Ph.D. track) in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania

2010-2011Graduate coursework in Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, USA

2009M.A. (Research) in Archaeology, University of Sydney, Australia

2006B.A. in Archaeology and Italian, Australian National University, Australia

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT (including teaching experience)

2019- Present Assistant Professor [Wissenschaftliche Assistentin], Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Courses offered: 

• • China and beyond (1500 BCE- 800 CE): Archaeological perspectives
• •Nomads of Inner Asia in early Chinese texts/ Writing about ancient nomads
• • Herds, Curds, Yurts: Steppe archaeology and ethnoarchaeology
• • Life with animals in prehistoric China 
• • Turfan through the ages
• • Health and disease in early China (joint course with Maxim Korolkov, Heidelberg University)
• • Archaeology of Xinjiang in interAsian contexts

2019- Present      Extraordinary Member [Außerordentliche Mitglieder],Münchner Zentrum für Antike Welten

2019- PresentAssociate Member [Membre Associée], Centre de Recherche sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale (CRCAO), Paris

2018-19Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Transregional Research Junior Scholar Fellow

2018-19Visiting Scholar [Boursiere d’Excellence], University of Geneva

2017-19Visiting Scholar, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania

2017-18Postdoctoral Research Award Grantee, Tang Center for Early China, Columbia University

2012-2014Teaching Fellow, University of Pennsylvania

(2013: Awarded Certificate in College and University Teaching)

Courses taught:

• • Introduction to Chinese Civilization, Fall 2012. Instructor: Paul Goldin
• • Introduction to Japanese Civilization, Spring 2013. Instructor: David Spafford
• • Introduction to Chinese Civilization, Fall 2013. Instructor: Adam Smith
• • Beginning Modern Chinese, Spring 2014. Instructor: Mien-hwa Chiang
• • [volunteer TA] Archaeological Field Methods and Problems, Spring 2014. Instructor: Harold L. Dibble

 

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS

Fellowships:

2018-2019Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Transregional Research Junior Scholar Fellowship

2016-2017Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania

2015-2016Bradley Fellowship, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

2011-2015Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania

2010-2011Doctoral Student Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis

Grants and Awards:

External

2017Tang Post-Doctoral Research Award in Early China, Columbia University

2015The Explorers Club Exploration Fund Grant 

2014ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies)/ Henry Luce Foundation Predissertation-summer Grant 

Internal

2020“LMU Munich Mentoring Excellence” Program grant for Software and Scientific Assistant

2020“LMU Munich Mentoring Excellence” Program grant for Travel and Career Development

2017Penn Center for East Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference Travel Grant 

2017, 2016, 2014, 2012Penn School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Travel Subvention

2017, 2016, 2014, 2012Penn Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Research Travel Grant 

2015, 2014, 2012Penn Museum Field Research Grant 

2014Penn School of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Government Travel Grant

 

PUBLICATIONS

Edited collections:

Chan, A. ed. 2020. Prehistoric Stone Remains in Xinjiang (China) and Mongolia and Their Symbolic Landscapes: Updates from Field Research. Special Section in Asian Perspectives 59 (2): 330-477.

 

Articles in peer-reviewed journals:

Shannon P. McPherron, A. Abdolahzadeh, W. Archer, A. Chan, I. Djakovic, T. Dogandžić, G. Leader, L. Li, S. Lin, M. Magnani, J. Reeves, Z. Rezek, and M. Weiss. 2020. Introducing platform surface interior angle (PSIA) and its role in flake formation, size and shape. PLoS ONE 15 (11): e0241714. 

Chan, A. and Dexin Cong. 2020. Results of field research of ancient stoneworks in the River Valleys of Bortala and Ili in Western Tian Shan (Xinjiang, China). Special Section: Prehistoric Stone Remains in Xinjiang (China) and Mongolia and Their Symbolic Landscapes: Updates from Field Research, Asian Perspectives 59 (2): 385-420.

Chan, A. 2020. Modules of Stone Construction and the Building of Ritual and Social Traditions in Past Xinjiang (China) and Mongolia. Special Section: Prehistoric Stone Remains in Xinjiang (China) and Mongolia and Their Symbolic Landscapes: Updates from Field Research, Asian Perspectives 59 (2): 330-337.

Seregin, Nikolai N. and Annie Chan. 2020. Китайский импорт из памятников тюрок Центральной Азии (VI–XI вв. н.э.): динамика распространения, историко-культурный контекст [Chinese imports from the sites of Central Asian Turks (VI–XI centuries AD): Dynamics of distribution, historical and cultural context]. Tomsk State University Journal of History 66: 181-189. 

Chan, A. 2017. From Milk and Wool: Vital Pastoral Crafts and their Vitality in 21^st Century Xinjiang. Journal of Ethnobiology 37 (3): 542-560.

Chan, A. 2014. Fieldwork in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. Expedition: The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 56 (3): 11.

Magnani, Matthew, Zeljko Rezek, Sam Lin, Annie Chan, and Harold Dibble. 2014. Flake Variation in relation to the Application of Force, Journal of Archaeological Science 46: 37-49.

 

Book reviews:

[forthcoming 2021] The Burial Record of Prehistoric Liangshan in Southwest China: Graves as Composite Objects. Anke Hein. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017. 534 pp. 1 online resource. ISBN 9783319423838, 9783319423845 (eBook). DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42384-5. Asian Perspectives 60.

 

Papers in published proceedings:

Chan A. and H-Q Shao. 2018. Злементы Андроновскoй культурны Синьцзяна в евразийском бронзовом веке [The Andronovo elements of Xinjiang in the Eurasian Bronze Age] in А.А. Tishkin (ed.), Современные решения актуальных проблем евразийской археологии. Сборник научных трудов 2 [Contemporary Solutions to the Current Problems of Eurasian archaeology. Collection of Scientific Papers, vol. 2], pp. 55-59. Barnaul: Altai University Publishing House.

[forthcoming 2021] Tishkin, A.A. and A. Chan. 2020. «Оленные» камни в Синьцзяне: распространение и особенности изучения [“Deer” stones in Xinjiang: geographic distribution and research techniques]. In Proceedings of the 6th All-Russian Archaeological Congress. 

 

Translations (Chinese into English):

Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology. 2018. The Excavation of the Tang Dynasty Tomb of the Couple of Yang Gui in a Southern Suburb of Xi’an. Chinese Cultural Relics 1-4 (5): 5-29.

Jing, Zhongwei and Xuanpeng Li. 2016. Excavated Bronzes from Han Dynasty tombs in Zuo Village of Nanhe County in the Southern Suburbs of Xingtai, Hebei Province. Chinese Cultural Relics 3-4: 256-263.

Zhang, Chi. 2016. Four Topics in Archaeological Chronology, Chinese Cultural Relics 3-4: 184-196.

Zhao, Li, Lilla Russell-Smith, Caren Dreyer, Ines Buschmann, and Meixiang Qi. 2015. The Collection of Murals from the Kizil Grottoes in the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin, Germany, Chinese Cultural Relics 2-4: 270-313.

Commission for the Preservation of Cultural Relics of Xuanhua District, Zhangjiakou City. 2015. The Excavation of a Liao-Jin Dynasty Mural Tomb in Xuanhua District of Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province, Chinese Cultural Relics 2-4: 106-121.

Li, Xiaocen, Jinlong Guo and Bo Wang. 2015. A Study of Ancient Paper Fragments from an Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb in Minfeng County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chinese Cultural Relics, Chinese Cultural Relics 1-2: 366-370.

Yan, Yaozhong. 2014. An Attempted Interpretation of the Thousand-Eyed Seated Buddha Wooden Tablet Paintings Unearthed in Damagou Township, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chinese Cultural Relics 2-4: 296-304.

Inner Mongolia Normal University, Inner Mongolian Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Inner Mongolian Institute for Cultural Relics Conservation. 2014. The Excavation of a Que-Gate Tower-Shaped Palace Foundation at the Site of Xanadu of the Yuan Dynasty in the Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Chinese Cultural Relics 2-4: 164-181.

 

 

 

PRESS AND ONLINE FORA

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Archaeology Excavation Team. 2015. 新疆温泉阿敦喬魯墓地發現家族墓葬“排墓” (Rows of Clan-based Slab Graves Discovered at the Site of Adunqiaolu (Aduuchuluu) in Wenquan County, Xinjiang). Zhongguo Wenwubao 中國文物報 (Chinese Cultural Relics News) January 30, 2015. http://www.kaogu.cn/cn/xccz/20150206/49207.html.

Chan, A. 2015. “Compass Points”, The Explorers Log 47 (3): 14.

Chan, A. 2013-2015, University of Pennsylvania Museum Blog “Behind the Gallery Walls”

- August, 2015, Archaeology of Central Asia: Excavations in Xinjiang (2 part post). http://www.penn.museum/blog/research/student-fieldwork/archaeology-of-central-asia-excavations-in-xinjiang-part-1-annie-chan/

- July- August, 2014, Archaeology at the border: survey and excavation in Xinjiang (2 part post). http://www.penn.museum/blog/museum/archaeology-at-the-border-survey-and-excavation-in-xinjiang/.

- June- July, 2013, Journey across China. From Beijing to Bortala (8 part post). http://www.penn.museum/blog/category/world/china-world/.

 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK AND COLLECTIONS ANALYSIS 

(in Russia, China, France, Oman, Israel)

Aug-Sept 2018Study of early medieval collections in institutions and museums in Russia | Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Kyzyl.

July-Aug 2018Site reconnaissance and study of early medieval collections in institutions and museums in China | Urumqi, Turfan, Guqung, Bortala and Ili Prefectures

July 2018Translator | Archaeological Summer School | Université de Genève and Renmin University of China Joint Seed Funding project

Sept 2017Excavator, Visiting Scholar | Niuheliang, Liaoning, China

Aug 2015Site Supervisor | (4^th season) Aduuchuluu and the Bortala Valley, Xinjiang, China  

Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Jun-Aug, 2014Square Supervisor, EDM operator, aerial photography | (3^rd season) Aduuchuluu, Xinjiang, China 

Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

July-Aug, 2013Excavator, EDM Operator | La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France (National Science Foundation project)

University of Pennsylvania, Musée National de Préhistoire

Jun-July, 2013Square Supervisor, Technician | (2^nd season) Aduuchuluu, Xinjiang, China 

Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Jan, 2013Excavator | Ra’s al-Hadd, Oman 

University of Bologna, Ministry of Heritage and Culture of the Sultanate of Oman

July-Aug, 2012Excavator | (1^st season) Aduuchuluu, Xinjiang, China 

Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

June 2011Surveyor | Sanyang Zhuang, Henan, China 

Washington University in St. Louis, Institute of Archaeology of Henan Province

Jun-July, 2010 Excavator | Tel Megiddo, Israel 

George Washington University, Tel Aviv University

 

SYMPOSIA AND PANELS ORGANIZED

Mar 30, 2017Archaeology in China [invited to chair]

82nd SAA Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.

Feb 25, 2017Alcohol in the Ancient World [organizing committee]

Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of Pennsylvania.

Aug 29, 2016The cultural politics of archaeological heritage in Eurasia. 

8^th World Archaeology Congress, Kyoto, Japan.

Jun 10, 2016From the Tian Shan to the Altai: Recent advances in archaeological research [double panel]

7^th World Conference of the SEAA, Cambridge, USA.

June 7, 2014Surfacing the past: Field methods and techniques of archaeological investigations in East and Central Asia. 

6^th World Conference of the SEAA, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

 

INVITED TALKS

Apr 26, 2021Bronze Age archaeology and field research in Xinjiang today

Lecture Series “Xinjiang und die Uiguren in Geschichte und Gegenwart”, Fakultät für Ostasienwissenschaften, Ruhr-Universität Bochum 

March, 2021[tentative title ] On Archaeological materiality, time scales and our relations with the past

Lecture Series “眼與心” Art Forum, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts 

Oct 28-29, 2019A study of leatherwork as ritualistic and military finesse based on the Artificers’ Record (Kaogong-ji) and Iron Age artifacts of China and Inner Asia

“Before the Silk Road”, Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH), Heidelberg University.

Oct 25-27, 2019Corporeal variability and commemorative rituals of Turkic anthropomorphic stelae from Xinjiang, Tuva Republic, and Mongolia

Middle Period Mongolian Archaeology Conference, University of Pennsylvania

April 17, 2018Latest Archaeological Research of Funerary Architecture in Prehistoric Inner Asia (first and second millennia BCE), Department of the Sciences of Antiquity, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

April 10, 2018Archaeology in China: History, Trends, and Prospects

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Sept 16, 2017The spatial logic of prehistoric architecture and pastoral nomadism in Xinjiang 新疆史前建築文化和草原遊牧的空間分析

The Third Renmin University of China Conference on International Archaeology: Northern China and Eurasian Civilization, Beijing, China

Sept 12, 2017On ritual performance and architectural monumentality in Prehistoric Western Tian Shan 論西天山史前祭祀表現和建築紀念碑性

The Seventh International Scientific Conference on Ancient cultures of Mongolia, Baikal Siberia and Northern China, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Mar 23, 2016Considering the archaeology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Northeast Asia

Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany

Jun 29, 2015Archaeological Research in the Bortala River Valley, Xinjiang

Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, U.K.

Oct 10, 2012The archaeological record of prehistoric Eastern Central Asia from Xinjiang

University of Pennsylvania Museum Scholar Series

 

CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS

Oct 12-16 2020The Deer stones of Xinjiang: A Revised Analysis. VI (XXII) All-Russian Archaeological Congress, Samara, Russia.

Feb 10-11, 2020Archaeology of the (Gök)Türks in medieval Eastern Eurasia

Tunnug-1 Archaeological Expedition project workshop, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Oct 31-The microcosms of InterAsia: the archaeological materiality of medieval China-steppe geopolitics

Nov 2, 2019SSRC Transregional Research Junior Scholars second workshop, ZMO (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient), Berlin, Germany

Sept 10, 2018 The artisanship of ritual accoutrements and the propagation of prehistoric funerary customs in Western Xinjiang

The Eighth International Scientific Conference on Ancient cultures of Mongolia, Baikal, Siberia and Northern China, Ulan-Ude, Russia.

Sept 8, 2018Tribute, Truce, and Tutelage: Chinese objects in early Medieval steppe geopolitics

SSRC Transregional Research Junior Scholars first workshop, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.

Sept 4, 2018Bronze Age Andronovo elements of Xinjiang in the Eurasian Bronze Age

II International Scientific Conference “Contemporary Solutions to the Current Problems of Eurasian archaeology”, Barnaul, Russia.

Jun 8, 2018On funerary architecture, accoutrements and activities and the permeation of the Bronze Age Andronovo Culture through Xinjiang. XVIIIe congrès mondial Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques (UISPP), Paris, France.

March 23, 2018Reconsidering constituents of the Andronovo Culture in Xinjiang. 

Archaeology in Eurasia. First International Meeting of Young Researchers. University of Bonn, Germany. 

Oct 6, 2017[poster and talk] ДРЕВНЯЯ КАМЕННАЯ АРХИТЕКТУРА И ГЕОГРАФИЯ ПОГРЕБАЛЬНО-ПОМИНАЛЬНЫХ ТРАДИЦИЙ В ЗАПАДНОМ ТЯНЬ-ШАНЕ (Prehistoric stone architecture and the geography of funerary and commemorative traditions in Western Tian Shan), V (XXI) All-Russian Archaeological Congress, Barnaul, Russia.

Mar 30, 2017The monumentality of ancient pastoral landscapes in Western Tian Shan (Xinjiang, China)

82^nd Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.

Feb 25, 2017Milking alcohol: The artisanal production of milk liquor and the heritage of pastoral food cultures

Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Student Conference “Alcohol in the Ancient World”, University of Pennsylvania, USA 

Jun 10, 2016A geospatial analysis of Bronze Age stoneworks in the Asian steppes

7^th World Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA), Cambridge, USA.

Feb 20, 2015A preliminary study of Bronze Age stone structures in the Eastern Central Asian steppes using geospatial analysis and 3D photogrammetry

2015 Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, Columbia University, USA.

Jun 7, 2014Excavation and survey methods for reconstructing Bronze Age stone architecture in the Dzungarian Alatau (Xinjiang, China)

6^th World Conference of the SEAA, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. 

Aug 9, 2012Stone Statues in the Altai: Picturing the Ancient Landscape

草原絲綢之路和環阿爾泰國際經濟合作區前景國際學術研討會 

2012 Prairie Silk Road and Prospects for International Economic Cooperation in the Trans-Altay Region International Academic Conference), Urumqi and Altay, China.

Jun 8, 2012Footwear as a construct of identity: Tracing the early adaptation of steppe sartorial culture in pre-imperial China

5^th World Conference of the SEAA, Fukuoka, Japan.

 

UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

2019-Journal Collection Management, Library of the Institute of Sinology, LMU

2019-Alumni Interviewer, University of Pennsylvania Admissions Committee in Germany

2016-7Member of Organizing committee, Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Student Conference, Penn

2016Committee member, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Penn

2014Departmental representative, Graduate student government of the School of Arts and Sciences, Penn

 

REFEREE SERVICE

Journal of Ethnobiology

Asian Perspectives

 

TRANSLATION AND EDITING SERVICES

- (Chinese into English) Chinese Cultural Relics Quarterly Journal (2014-2019) 

• Interpreter (multiple Asian languages <-> English) for Avante Language Services Inc., Philadelphia (2017)
• Review of The Tangut Manuscripts - Lotus Sūtra Collected by the Guimet National Museum of Asian Art in France by NIE Hongyin [forthcoming] 
• Book manuscript of “Ma, Zhao. 2015. Runaway Wives, Urban Crimes, and Survival Tactics in Wartime Beijing, 1937–1949. Harvard East Asian Monographs 384”. 
• Writers’ guidelines for Asian Archaeology, journal of the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology (RCCFA), Jilin University. 
• Memorandum on “Preservation of prehistoric culture heritage and the construction of archaeological parks” display at the national tourist park of the archeological site of Zengpiyan 甑皮岩, Guilin, China.

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Fellow

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellows and Grantees

Member, Society for East Asian Archaeology 

Term Member, The Explorers Club

 

DIGITAL AND TECHNICAL SKILLS

Imaging and illustration softwares: AutoCAD, Agisoft PhotoScan 3D photogrammetry, MicroScribe 3D Digitizer

Spatial analysis programs: ArcGIS

Database management: Airtable, Numbers, Microsoft Excel 

Field instruments: total station (EDM), Real Time Kinematic

Lab experience:

2014-2017Laboratory Assistant and Microscribe Technician, glass-core controlled experiments in lithic flake variation, Penn Archaeology Lab.

 

LANGUAGE

Native proficiency in English and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin)

Heritage speaker of Hokkien (Minnan) 

Advanced Classical Chinese

Good working knowledge of French and Italian 

Basic Japanese, Russian and German

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