Michael Puett Appointed Director of Harvard University Asia Center

Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has been named the next director of the Harvard University Asia Center.

“I am delighted that Michael Puett has agreed to serve as director of the Asia Center,” said University Interim Provost John F. Manning. “He is a terrific scholar, teacher, and mentor, and his deep expertise in East Asian history and culture will position him well to support and advance the University’s research and teaching about this critical region.”

“Michael Puett is an excellent choice to lead the Asia Center,” said Hopi Hoekstra, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “He has a long history of academic collaboration with scholars across disciplines, both at Harvard and beyond, and is well poised to support the Center’s goal of taking a truly interdisciplinary and cross-regional approach to this work.”

Puett’s research explores the relationships between religion, history, anthropology, and philosophy, with the aim of bringing the study of China into larger historical and comparative frameworks. He is the author of two books, The Ambivalence of Creation: Debates Concerning Innovation and Artifice in Early China and To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China, and coauthor of a third, Ritual and its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. He has also published many scholarly articles on Chinese history c. 1200 BCE - c. 755 CE and on classical Chinese ritual, social, and political theory.

Puett teaches courses in ethics, history, and anthropology in the FAS, including the GenEd course “Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory,” one of the most highly enrolled undergraduate courses at Harvard since 2012. He has received several awards for his excellence in teaching and advising, including the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize, the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award, the Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising, and the Harvard College Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Throughout his career, Puett has worked to broaden the ways we think about Chinese history and all the impacts it has on our understanding of history and philosophy today. 

“I’m thrilled to take on the role of director at the Asia Center,” said Puett. “There is no more exciting time to be enabling research and intellectual discourse on Asia. Home to nearly 60% of the world’s population, the region is facing both unprecedented growth and unprecedented political, economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges. I look forward to working with the Asia Center’s talented group of faculty, students, researchers, and staff to engage on these topics that are so critical to Asia and the world at large.”

Since its inception as a University-wide interfaculty initiative in 1997, the Asia Center has been committed to facilitating the cross-cultural study of Asia by fostering research opportunities and bringing together the Harvard community to explore the interconnected histories of the region and the contemporary issues facing the region. Recognizing that many current research questions and challenges are not limited to a single country or region but transcend borders, the Center focuses its initiatives on East, South, and Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on topics that cross national boundaries and academic disciplines.

Puett will begin his duties as director on September 1, 2024. For more information about the Center’s work, visit the Asia Center website.