Prof. Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann
Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung "Schicksal, Freiheit und Prognose. Bewältigungsstrategien in Ostasien und Europa"
Home Institution: UMR 8173 Chine-Corée-Japon, CNRS – EHESS, Paris
IKGF Visiting Fellow December 2015 - March 2017
(Last change of profile by end of stay)
IKGF Research Project
Curriculum vitae
Born 23.11.1960 in Moscow (USSR). In 1978-1983 I studied at the Institute of Asian and African Studies of the Moscow State University and received a ‘Diploma’ (equivalent of M.A.) in History (Sinology). In 1985-1989 I was teaching history of ancient and medieval China at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, and in 1989 I became a Research Fellow (‘Nauchny Sotrudnik’) at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1992 I defended an equivalent of a Ph.D. (‘Kandidat Nauk’) in History (Sinology) in the framework of a joint Ph.D. program between the Institute of Asian and African Studies and the Institute of Oriental Studies. In 1993-2000, thanks to a series of post-doctoral fellowships, including an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, I pursued research in France (Paris) and Germany (Göttingen). Since 2000 I’m a Chargé de Recherche at the CNRS (UMR 8173 Chine-Corée-Japon, CNRS-EHESS). Based in Paris, I continue to lecture at the Institute of Asian and African Studies and share research time between France, Germany, and Taiwan. In 2011 I received a renewed Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (3 months), and in 2014 I was a Visiting Researcher for 6 months at the National Tsing Hua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
Research interests: Conceptions of terrestrial space in the emerging Chinese Empire (derived from transmitted and manuscript texts dating from the Warring States period through the Han dynasty, ca. 4th century BC – 2nd century AD); the impact of the initial spatial ideas on the extant maps of the Chinese Empire (the earliest dating from the early 12th century) – adaptations and revisions.
Selected Publications
Books edited
| 2007 | (co-edited with Francesca Bray and Georges Métailié) Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China: The Warp and the Weft. Leiden: Brill. |
| 2003 | (co-edited with Michael Dickhardt) Creating and Representing Sacred Spaces, (Göttinger Beiträge zur Asienforschung 2-3; special double issue). Göttingen: Peust & Gutschmidt. |
Articles
| 2015 | Healing plants in the spiritual landscape of the Shanhai jing (Itineraries of mountains and seas, comp. 1st c. BC), in: Circumscribere 16 [International Journal for the History of Science] 16, pp. 103-122. |
| 2012 | A History of a Spatial Relationship: Kunlun Mountain and the Yellow River Source from Chinese Cosmography through to Western Cartography, in: Circumscribere [International Journal for the History of Science] 11, pp. 1-31. |
| 2010 | The Rong Cheng shi version of the “Nine Provinces”: Some Parallels with Transmitted Texts, in: East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine 32, pp. 13-58. |
| 2009 | Ritual Practices for Constructing Terrestrial Space (Warring States-Early Han), in: HdO Early Chinese Religion. Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC – 220 AD), ed. by John Lagerwey and Marc Kalinowski, Leiden: Brill, pp. 595-644. |
| 2007 | Mapless Mapping: Did the Maps of the Shan hai jing Ever Exist? In: Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China: The Warp and the Weft, ed. by Francesca Bray, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, and Georges Métailié, Leiden: Brill, pp. 217-294. |
| 2006 | Where is the Yellow River Source? A Controversial Question in the Early Chinese Historiography, in: Oriens Extremus 45/2005-2006, pp. 68-90. |
| 2005 | Spatial Composition of Ancient Chinese Texts, in: History of Science, History of Text, ed. by Karine Chemla (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 238), Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 3-47. |
| 2003 | Mapping a ‘Spiritual’ Landscape: Representing Terrestrial Space in the Shan hai jing, in: Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries, and Human Geographies in Chinese History, ed. by Nicola di Cosmo and Don Wyatt, London/New York: Routledge Curzon, pp. 35-79. |
| 1996 | Political Concept Behind an Interplay of Spatial ‘Positions’, in: Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident 18: Disposer pour dire, placer pour penser, situer pour agir, ed. by Karine Chemla and Michael Lackner, Saint-Denis, Presses Univ. de Vincennes, pp. 9-33. |
| 1995 | Conception of Terrestrial Organization in the Shan hai jing, in: Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient 82, pp. 57-110. |
Other
| Public Media presentation: radio program Planete Terre by Sylvan Kahn [France Culture], 01/23/2013 2 p.m.: | |
| “Mondes chinois, arabes et euroéens: la circulation des savoirs géographiques” (URL: http://carnetsjapon.hypotheses.org/2902) |