Michael Szonyi


Michael A. Szonyi is Professor of Chinese History at Harvard University and the director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. His research focuses on the local history of southeast China, especially in the Ming dynasty, the history of Chinese popular religion, and Overseas Chinese history.

Biography

Szonyi received his BA from the University of Toronto and his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. After completing his doctorate, he worked at McGill University, later moving to University of Toronto, where he received tenure in 2002. Szonyi came to Harvard in 2005, and was named John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities in 2007 and Professor of Chinese History in 2009. Today he splits his time between Cambridge and London, Ontario, where his wife, Francine McKenzie, is a professor of international relations at the University of Western Ontario. Professor Szonyi was appointed director of Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies in 2015.

Publications