Dagmar Schäfer
Director (Since 2013)
Dr., Professor, TU Berlin, FU Berlin, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Dagmar Schäfer's main interest is the history and sociology of technology of China, focusing on the paradigms configuring the discourse on technological development, past and present. She has published widely on the Premodern history of China (Song-Ming) and technology, materiality, the processes and structures that lead to varying knowledge systems, and the changing role of artefacts—texts, objects, and spaces—in the creation, diffusion, and use of scientific and technological knowledge. Her monograph The Crafting of the 10,000 Things (University of Chicago Press, 2011) won the History of Science Society: Pfizer Award in 2012 and the Association for Asian Studies: Joseph Levenson Prize (Pre-1900) in 2013. Her current research focus is the historical dynamics of concept formation, situations, and experiences of action through which actors have explored, handled and explained their physical, social, and individual worlds.
Dagmar Schäfer is Honorary Professor, History of Technology, Technical University, Berlin; Adjunct Professor, Institute of Sinology, Freie Universität, Berlin; and Guest Professor, School of History and Culture of Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her doctorate from the University of Würzburg as well as her habilitation in the history of China and science. She has worked and studied at the University of Zhejiang PR China, Beijing University PR China, Hsinchu University RoChina, the University of Pennsylvania U.S.A. and the University of Manchester U.K. among others.
Projects
Accounting for Uncertainty: Prediction and Planning in Asian History
Digital Humanities
Get-It-Published
Local Gazetteers
Moving Crops and the Scales of History
Multimedia and the History of Science/Sound of Silk Film Project
Scale and Scope
The Body of Animals
Cultural Traditions of Technical Knowledge
Geographies of Knowing: China Historical GIS
Knowledge Transmission
Media and Methods of Practical Knowledge Transmission: Craftsmanship and the Qing Court
Monumentalized or Marginalized, Writings about Technology in Chinese History: A Database
Systems, Tools, and Artifacts: Technology Transmission in Premodern China
Selected Publications
Schäfer, D. (2018). The historical roots of modern bridges: China’s engineers as global actors. In D. Pretel, & L. Camprubí (Eds.), Technology and globalisation: networks of experts in world history (pp. 27-39). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10…
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Schäfer, D. (2018). Translation history, knowledge and nation building in China. In S.-A. Harding, & O. Carbonell Cortes (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation and culture (pp. 134-153). London: Routledge.
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Schäfer, D., Riello, G., & Molà, L. (Eds.). (2018). Threads of global desire: silk in the pre-modern world. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
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Schäfer, D., Riello, G., & Molà, L. (2018). Introduction: Silk in the pre-modern world. In D. Schäfer, G. Riello, & L. Molà (Eds.), Threads of global desire: silk in the pre-modern world (pp. 1-18). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.
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Schäfer, D. (2018). The historical roots of modern bridges: China’s engineers as global actors. In D. Pretel, & L. Camprubí (Eds.), Technology and globalisation: networks of experts in world history (pp. 27-39). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10…
Read More
Schäfer, D. (2018). Translation history, knowledge and nation building in China. In S.-A. Harding, & O. Carbonell Cortes (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation and culture (pp. 134-153). London: Routledge.
Read More
Schäfer, D., Riello, G., & Molà, L. (Eds.). (2018). Threads of global desire: silk in the pre-modern world. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
Read More
Schäfer, D., Riello, G., & Molà, L. (2018). Introduction: Silk in the pre-modern world. In D. Schäfer, G. Riello, & L. Molà (Eds.), Threads of global desire: silk in the pre-modern world (pp. 1-18). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.
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Events
Books
Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
ENIUGH Congress, Budapest, Hungary
Renmin University, Beijing, China
Columbia University, New York, USA
Princeton University, USA