Devotional literature in Sinophone Islam, conceptualizations of death and afterlife, religious policy and representations of ethnicity

August 2023 – July 2024 National Science and Technology Council, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on the circulation of Sufi texts and teachings in Qing China, thematic research program “Qing Empire, Mapmaking and the Eurasian Transfer of Knowledge” (NSTC 111-2410-H-001-005-MY3); Principal Investigator: Ling-wei Kung

August 2023 – July 2024 National Taiwan University, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Taipei

Adjunct Assistant Professor (FL 3023 – 102 32831)

January 2022 – July 2023 National Science and Technology Council, Taipei

Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on inclusive kinship and gender in the origin myths of Tibeto-Burman minorities of upland Yunnan, thematic research program “Community, History and Civilization” (MOST 110-2420-H-001-003-MY4); Principal Investigator: Ming-ke Wang

August 2017 – July 2020 Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on female sectarians in early-modern cultures, thematic research program “Scapegoats and Poisonous Cats: The Social Roots of Collective Fear, Mistrust and Violence” (MOST 105-2420-H-001-007-MY4); Principal Investigator: Ming-ke Wang

August 2015 – June 2017 Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on Islamic networks and scriptural traditions in late imperial and republican China, thematic research program “Culture, History, and State Formation: Minority Nationalities in Modern China” (AS 104-TP-C01); Co-Principal Investigators: Ming-ke Wang and Ko-wu Huang

October 2007 – February 2012 Capital Normal University, College of International Culture, Beijing
Chinese-Italian Translation and Interpreting Instructor. Coordination of short-term undergraduate courses for exchange students from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

September 2009 – December 2012 Joint Ph.D. in (1) “Civilizations, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Africa” at Sapienza University, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali, Rome; (2) “Ethnology” at Minzu University of China, School of Ethnology and Sociology, Beijing

September 2006 – June 2009 M.A. in “Applied Linguistics and Modern Chinese,” Capital Normal University, School of Literature, Beijing

September 2002 – October 2005 B.A. in “Languages, Economics and Institutions of East Asia,” Ca’ Foscari University, Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia Orientale, Venice

Tommaso Previato, Ph.D. (2012), Sapienza University of Rome (ISO) and Minzu University of China (School of Ethnology and Sociology), is incoming visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies – Erlangen. Combining text-based research with empirical methods of field data collection, his work lies at the intersection of history, religion and gender with a focus on Sinophone Islam and Tibeto-Burman cultures of southwest China. His current research project examines textual constructions of sainthood in Qadiriyya and Jahriyya Sufism during the modern Islamic revival. His latest edited book Fear, Heterodoxy and Crime in Traditional China was published by Brill, Sinica Leidensia, in June 2024.

Fear, Heterodoxy and Crime in Traditional China: Toward an Anthropological History of Emotion and Its Social Management, Leiden, Brill, Sinica Leidensia Series, vol. 165, Jul. 2024 (ISBN: 978-90-04-68823-0; book editor and contributor)

“La Lunga Marcia delle Musulmane Cinesi: Mistica Proletaria e Culto dei Martiri della Rivoluzione nel Qinghai Orientale” (The Long March of Chinese Muslim Women: Proletarian Mysticism and Worship of Revolutionary Martyrs in Eastern Qinghai), Sinosfere: Una Rivista sull’Universo Culturale Cinese, Costellazioni – Culto e Pratiche, 20 (2024): 47-60

“Jihad o Rivoluzione? Percorsi Martirologici ed Escatologia Politica nell’Islam Cinese” [Jihad or Revolution? Martyrological Trajectories and Political Eschatology in Modern Chinese Islam], Annali Sezione Orientale, 82/1-2 (2022), 106-40

“Gendering Piety, Justice and Violence: On the Aesthetics of Self-Killing in Han-Chinese, Naxi and Lahu Cultures (from the Late-Ming to Mid-20th Century),” Annali di Ca’ Foscari – Serie Orientale, 58/1 (2022), 547-600

Love, Death and Self-Transformation in Jahriyyah Hagiographies and Ma Dexin’s Commented Translation of Qaṣīdat al-Burda (The Mantle Poem), Riyadh: King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Qira’at – Humanities Papers, no. 16), 2022 (ISBN 978-603-8360-06-4)

Martyrdom and Frontier Banishment in the Official and Devotional Narratives of anti-Qing Uprisings: The Case of Jahri Sufi Women in 18–20th Century Gansu, Rome: WriteUp Books (Ming Qing Studies – Monographs, no. 2), 2020 (ISBN 978-88-85629-84-4)

“Le Minoranze Musulmane nel Quadro delle Relazioni Sino-Arabe: Vecchi e Nuovi Processi di Inclusione” [The Muslim Minority Issue in Sino-Arab Strategic Relations: Old and New Processes of Inclusion], Sinosfere: Una Rivista sull’Universo Culturale Cinese, Costellazioni – Chinese Soft Power, 5 (2019), 48-68

“Geografie del Sacro e Salvaguardia Ambientale: Un’Applicazione dell’Ecologia di Genere alle Comunità Etniche della Frontiera Sino-Tibetana” [Sacred Geographies and Environmental Protection: A Study on Gender Ecology Applied to the Ethnic Communities of the Sino-Tibetan Frontier], Storia delle Donne, 14 (2018), 169-90

“A Neglected Genealogy of the Martyred Heroines of Islam: (Re)-writing Women’s Participation in Jihad into the History of Late Imperial Gansu,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 38/3 (2018), 301-25

“Pre-modern Globalization and Islamic Networks under Mongol Rule: Some Preliminary Considerations on the Spreading of Sufi Knowledge in Gansu-Qinghai,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 36/2 (2016), 235-66

“La Presenza Musulmana in Cina: Dinamiche Storiche e Problematiche Attuali” [The Muslim Presence in China: Historical Dynamics and Contemporary Challenges], Mondo Cinese: Rivista di Studi sulla Cina Contemporanea, 147/3 (2011), 96-115

Devotional literature in Sinophone Islam, conceptualizations of death and afterlife, religious policy and representations of ethnicity

August 2023 – July 2024 National Science and Technology Council, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on the circulation of Sufi texts and teachings in Qing China, thematic research program “Qing Empire, Mapmaking and the Eurasian Transfer of Knowledge” (NSTC 111-2410-H-001-005-MY3); Principal Investigator: Ling-wei Kung

August 2023 – July 2024 National Taiwan University, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Taipei

Adjunct Assistant Professor (FL 3023 – 102 32831)

January 2022 – July 2023 National Science and Technology Council, Taipei

Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on inclusive kinship and gender in the origin myths of Tibeto-Burman minorities of upland Yunnan, thematic research program “Community, History and Civilization” (MOST 110-2420-H-001-003-MY4); Principal Investigator: Ming-ke Wang

August 2017 – July 2020 Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on female sectarians in early-modern cultures, thematic research program “Scapegoats and Poisonous Cats: The Social Roots of Collective Fear, Mistrust and Violence” (MOST 105-2420-H-001-007-MY4); Principal Investigator: Ming-ke Wang

August 2015 – June 2017 Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology, Taipei
Postdoctoral Fellow, historical anthropology research group. Sub-project on Islamic networks and scriptural traditions in late imperial and republican China, thematic research program “Culture, History, and State Formation: Minority Nationalities in Modern China” (AS 104-TP-C01); Co-Principal Investigators: Ming-ke Wang and Ko-wu Huang

October 2007 – February 2012 Capital Normal University, College of International Culture, Beijing
Chinese-Italian Translation and Interpreting Instructor. Coordination of short-term undergraduate courses for exchange students from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

September 2009 – December 2012 Joint Ph.D. in (1) “Civilizations, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Africa” at Sapienza University, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali, Rome; (2) “Ethnology” at Minzu University of China, School of Ethnology and Sociology, Beijing

September 2006 – June 2009 M.A. in “Applied Linguistics and Modern Chinese,” Capital Normal University, School of Literature, Beijing

September 2002 – October 2005 B.A. in “Languages, Economics and Institutions of East Asia,” Ca’ Foscari University, Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia Orientale, Venice

Tommaso Previato, Ph.D. (2012), Sapienza University of Rome (ISO) and Minzu University of China (School of Ethnology and Sociology), is incoming visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies – Erlangen. Combining text-based research with empirical methods of field data collection, his work lies at the intersection of history, religion and gender with a focus on Sinophone Islam and Tibeto-Burman cultures of southwest China. His current research project examines textual constructions of sainthood in Qadiriyya and Jahriyya Sufism during the modern Islamic revival. His latest edited book Fear, Heterodoxy and Crime in Traditional China was published by Brill, Sinica Leidensia, in June 2024.

Fear, Heterodoxy and Crime in Traditional China: Toward an Anthropological History of Emotion and Its Social Management, Leiden, Brill, Sinica Leidensia Series, vol. 165, Jul. 2024 (ISBN: 978-90-04-68823-0; book editor and contributor)

“La Lunga Marcia delle Musulmane Cinesi: Mistica Proletaria e Culto dei Martiri della Rivoluzione nel Qinghai Orientale” (The Long March of Chinese Muslim Women: Proletarian Mysticism and Worship of Revolutionary Martyrs in Eastern Qinghai), Sinosfere: Una Rivista sull’Universo Culturale Cinese, Costellazioni – Culto e Pratiche, 20 (2024): 47-60

“Jihad o Rivoluzione? Percorsi Martirologici ed Escatologia Politica nell’Islam Cinese” [Jihad or Revolution? Martyrological Trajectories and Political Eschatology in Modern Chinese Islam], Annali Sezione Orientale, 82/1-2 (2022), 106-40

“Gendering Piety, Justice and Violence: On the Aesthetics of Self-Killing in Han-Chinese, Naxi and Lahu Cultures (from the Late-Ming to Mid-20th Century),” Annali di Ca’ Foscari – Serie Orientale, 58/1 (2022), 547-600

Love, Death and Self-Transformation in Jahriyyah Hagiographies and Ma Dexin’s Commented Translation of Qaṣīdat al-Burda (The Mantle Poem), Riyadh: King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Qira’at – Humanities Papers, no. 16), 2022 (ISBN 978-603-8360-06-4)

Martyrdom and Frontier Banishment in the Official and Devotional Narratives of anti-Qing Uprisings: The Case of Jahri Sufi Women in 18–20th Century Gansu, Rome: WriteUp Books (Ming Qing Studies – Monographs, no. 2), 2020 (ISBN 978-88-85629-84-4)

“Le Minoranze Musulmane nel Quadro delle Relazioni Sino-Arabe: Vecchi e Nuovi Processi di Inclusione” [The Muslim Minority Issue in Sino-Arab Strategic Relations: Old and New Processes of Inclusion], Sinosfere: Una Rivista sull’Universo Culturale Cinese, Costellazioni – Chinese Soft Power, 5 (2019), 48-68

“Geografie del Sacro e Salvaguardia Ambientale: Un’Applicazione dell’Ecologia di Genere alle Comunità Etniche della Frontiera Sino-Tibetana” [Sacred Geographies and Environmental Protection: A Study on Gender Ecology Applied to the Ethnic Communities of the Sino-Tibetan Frontier], Storia delle Donne, 14 (2018), 169-90

“A Neglected Genealogy of the Martyred Heroines of Islam: (Re)-writing Women’s Participation in Jihad into the History of Late Imperial Gansu,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 38/3 (2018), 301-25

“Pre-modern Globalization and Islamic Networks under Mongol Rule: Some Preliminary Considerations on the Spreading of Sufi Knowledge in Gansu-Qinghai,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 36/2 (2016), 235-66

“La Presenza Musulmana in Cina: Dinamiche Storiche e Problematiche Attuali” [The Muslim Presence in China: Historical Dynamics and Contemporary Challenges], Mondo Cinese: Rivista di Studi sulla Cina Contemporanea, 147/3 (2011), 96-115