Fa-ti Fan

I teach history of science and history of modern China at Binghamton University, State University of New York. My research centers on global history of science, science in modern East Asia, and science and empire. I am working on three projects during my term in the Dept. III. First, I am completing a project on earthquakes, seismology, and disaster control in China in the 1960s-1980s. I am particularly interested in the earthquake prediction program called "Collective Monitoring, Collective Defense," which recruited hundreds of thousands of lay observers and scientists in a broad effort to predict earthquakes. I presented a paper on bio-sentinels and earthquake prediction from this project in a department colloquium in April. Second, I am beginning a new project on animals in late imperial China. I will investigate how the Chinese understood marine animals; in doing so, I hope to explore their ideas and knowledge about marine life, the seas, and the geography and environments beyond the lands. For this project, I have benefited greatly from participating in the Animal Reading/Working Group in Dept. III. Third, I am working with a group of scholars on a collective project on the history of the senses in (and the sensory history of) modern China.