New Chinese Studies Specialist in the Liverpool History Department
The History department is delighted to welcome Leon Rocha as our new Lecturer in Chinese Studies.
Dr Rocha is a historian of modern China and a historian of science, medicine and technology in East Asia. At present he is working on two book-length projects, Harnessing Pleasure: Imagining Chinese Sex in the Twentieth Century and Needham Questions. Harnessing Pleasure investigates the multiple ways that Chinese sexuality has been conceptualised and represented in intellectual and popular discourses, paying particular attention to claims being made about sexual pleasure “with Chinese characteristics”. Needham Questions is a study of famous British Sinologist, Joseph Needham (1900-1995), inaugurator of the Science and Civilisation in China series.
Before coming to Liverpool, Dr Rocha held fellowships and appointments at the University of Cambridge, Yale University, and Freie Universität Berlin. He is the Curriculum Lead for the new Chinese Studies programme at the University of Liverpool and the Coordinator for Chinese Studies between Liverpool and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
Dr Rocha says ‘I am very excited to share my knowledge with our students (I am teaching a second-year course on Chairman Mao), developing new research on Global History with my colleagues, and building bridges between Liverpool and China.’