TJ Hinrichs

TJ Hinrichs is an Associate Professor in Cornell University’s Department of History. A central thread running through her research and teaching is the investigation of connections between intimate experiences, such as illness and personal transformation; communal practices, such as medical training and religious rites; and broader historical shifts, such as commercialization and the spread of printing. Her co-edited volume Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History (Belknap/Harvard, 2013) brings together contributions from fifty-eight leading scholars from around the world. Her forthcoming monograph, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine: The Medical Transformation of Governance and Southern Customs in Song China (Harvard East Asia Series), examines how the Song (960-1279 c.e.) government made medicine an instrument of its activist social reform policies, and the ramifications of that process for political and medical practice. More recent projects include exploration of the recently discovered tomb of an eleventh century Shaanxi pharmaceuticals merchant, and Song-Yuan (10th-14th century Chinese) commercial and itinerant cultures.