Christopher Agnew

• Ph.D., University of Washington, 2006

Dr. Christopher Agnew is an associate professor in the Department of History. He regularly teaches courses on the history of pre-modern and modern East Asia. His book, The Kongs of Qufu: The Descendants of Confucius in Late Imperial China, is a history of the family patronized by successive dynasties as the legitimate descendants of the sage. He is also interested in Ming and Qing social history, and is currently working on the connection between late Ming statecraft and literati works on animals. He has served as the director of the International Studies Program and is currently the chair of the Department of History.

• Descendants of Confucius
• Economic history of Ming and Qing China
• Maritime commerce in Northeast Asia
• Animal history

"Distinguishing Pearls from Fish Eyes: The Genealogies of the Descendants of Confucius," in Friedrich, M., Quenzer, J., eds., Genealogical Manuscripts in Cross-Cultural Perspective. De Gruyter, 2024.

The Kongs of Qufu: The Descendants of Confucius in Late Imperial China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019)

A Review of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610, History: Reviews of New Books, 40:2 (April 2012), 55-56.

"Dengzhou and the Bohai Gulf in Seventeenth-Century Northeast Asia," in Kenneth Hall, ed., The Growth of Non-Western Cities: Primary and Secondary Urban Networking, c. 900-1900 (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2011), 171-194.

"Bureaucrats, Sectarians, and the Descendants of Confucius," Late Imperial China 31:1 (2010), 1-27.

"Migrants and Mutineers: The Rebellion of Kong Youde and Seventeenth-Century Northeast Asia," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 52:3 (2009), 505-541.

"Memory and Power in Qufu: Inscribing the Past of Confucius, Descendants," Journal of Family History 34:4 (2009), 327-343.