Chinese History and Anthropology Professor Michael Puett To Lead Harvard Asia Center

Michael J. Puett, a professor of Chinese history and anthropology, will serve as the next faculty director of Harvard’s Asia Center, the University announced on Tuesday.

Puett, who will assume the role next month, succeeds James Robson, who served at the helm of the center since August 2019 before leaving at the end of June to take over the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Interim Harvard Provost John F. Manning ’82 praised Puett’s appointment to lead the Asia Center in a statement to the Harvard Gazette, a University-run publication.

“He is a terrific scholar, teacher, and mentor,” Manning said. “His deep expertise in East Asian history and culture will position him well to support and advance the University’s research and teaching.”

Puett has written two books on Chinese history and co-authored a third.

The Asia Center was founded in 1997 as a “University-wide interfaculty initiative” to bolster the “cross-cultural study of Asia,” according to its website. Its work involves organizing conferences and seminars, supporting student and faculty research, and hosting speakers.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi E. Hoekstra also lauded Puett’s appointment in a statement to the Gazette.

Puett “is well poised to support the Center’s goal of taking a truly interdisciplinary and cross-regional approach to this work,” Hoekstra said.

Since receiving his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1994, Puett has spent his entire academic career at Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. He received a joint appointment in the Anthropology Department in 2017.

Puett is also known for teaching General Education course “Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory,” alongside other courses in the FAS.

Puett told the Gazette that he was “thrilled” to lead the Asia Center.

“There is no more exciting time to be enabling research and intellectual discourse on Asia,” Puett said. “The region is facing both unprecedented growth and unprecedented political, economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges.”

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.