I was born in Santa Clara, California in 1967. My parents were both trained as scientists, so my first academic interests were naturally in that direction. I enrolled at San José State University in 1986, pursuing a degree in Math-Computer Science. After trying my hand at computer programming and computer network support, I decided to switch fields completely, seeking a more humanistic endeavor.

Graduate Career

After getting married in 1995, I enrolled in a masters program in East Asian Regional Studies at Harvard University. Harvard's plentiful resources for Chinese studies and numerous China-related faculty, made this experience invaluable for my formal training as a Sinologist. In 1997, I completed my M.A. thesis, entitled “Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age,” which was primarily a technical investigation of the Chinese chariot and its diffusion from Central Asian prototypes. This was published in an expanded form in 2000, in Sino-Platonic Papers 99.

In 1997, I transferred to Princeton University and enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Chinese Art and Archaeology, working under Professor Robert W. Bagley.

At Princeton I was able to embark on some formal training in art history, while continuing my studies of archaeology and ancient history. At the suggestion of my advisor, I focused my dissertation research of the organization of imperial workshops in Han China. Using object analysis, inscriptions, and received texts, I was able to reconstruct the labor and management organization at one imperial luxury-goods factory that operated in Chengdu city during the Qin and Han dynasties.

"The Organization of Imperial Workshops During the Han Dynasty"

Professional Career

After graduating in 2001, I took up my first appointment in the History Department at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2007, I accepted a position in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

My research interests continue to evolve, and are currently focused on craftsmen in Ancient China, cultural contact and transmission between China and the West, historical interpretations of the Qin Dynasty, and law and society in Early China.

Undergraduate Education

In 1992 I transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz, to study Asian History and Anthropology (Archaeology). Under the influence of some great professors, I decided to focus on Ancient Chinese history and archaeology. Graduating with honors in 1994, my senior thesis was entitled, “The Origins and Evolution of Political Authority in Ancient China.” Though somewhat naïve and teleological, this study was an earnest attempt to synthesize the secondary and primary sources (in translation) for the evolution of political authority in China, from the first emergence of state-level society to the empire of the Qin.

"THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY IN ANCIENT CHINA." (PDF)