Liping Bu

Dr. Liping Bu is Reid-Knox Professor and Chair of History Department. Her research interests include American international relations and cultural diplomacy, educational exchange and knowledge circulation, public health and nation-building. She teaches American foreign relations, 20th-century America and modern China and East Asia. She received her PhD in history and policy from Carnegie Mellon University after studies at Peking University and Smith College. She has published five books and dozens of peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters on a wide range of American international education and cultural relations, and public health and modern societies. Her recent book was titled Public Health and the Modernization of China, 1865-2015.

Professor Bu has received prestigious fellowships and grants, including NIH grant, Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Rockefeller Archive Center grant, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. At Alma College, she received Barlow Award and Posey Award for Faculty Excellence, and the Service Learning Award.

Professor Bu has been invited as keynote speaker at major international conferences, and as a visiting scholar at universities in Singapore, Britain and China. As scholar in residence at the National Library of Medicine, NIH, she created a higher education module on public health campaigns in China, and curated exhibits on China’s public health and society:

1) “Chinese public health posters”

2) “Chinese Anti-Malaria Posters”

3) “Health for the People: Continuity and Change in Asian Medicine”

(4) ”Consumptive Disease”: Chinese Anti-Tuberculosis Posters, 1950-1980”

(5) ”Family Planning and Socioeconomic Development”

Title

Reid-Knox Professor and Chair in American History

Discipline

History

Educational Background

Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University

Smith College

Peking University

Rank

Professor of History

My career at Alma began in

1999

I'm an expert in

modern America, US-China relations, international education, public health and modernization

My expertise:

Professor Liping Bu specializes in 20th century U.S. history and US-China relations. She has published extensively on American international education and cultural exchanges, and public health and modern nation-building. She has authored and edited several books and dozens of journal articles and book chapters.

Signature course(s):

Cold-War America, Immigration and Ethnicity, US-China Relations, China spring term 2019. Take a tour online https://chinaspringterm.wixsite.com/2019

Recent publications:

Books:

Liping Bu, Public Health and the Modernization of China, 1865-2015. Routledge, 2017 https://www.routledge.com/Public-Health-and-the-Modernization-of-China-18652015/Bu/p/book/9781138845817
Liping Bu and Ka-che Yip, eds. Public Health and National Reconstruction in Post-War Asia: International Influences, Local Transformations. Routledge, 2015.
Liping Bu, Darwin Stapleton and Ka-che Yip, eds. Science, Public Health, and the State In Modern Asia. London: Routledge. 2012.
Liping Bu. Making the World Like US: Education, Cultural Expansion, and the American Century. Praeger. 2003.
Frank Ninkovich and Liping Bu, eds. The Cultural Turn: Essays in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations. Chicago: Imprint Publications. 2001.

Articles:

“Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Health and China’s Modern Health Development,” Historia: debates and tendencia [History: Debates and Trends] 21.3 (Fall 2021): 54-79
Liping Bu, “National Status in a Global Pandemic,” American Journal of Public Health 111.3 (March 2021): 407-408. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306089
Liping Bu, “Confronting Race and Ethnicity: Education and Cultural Identity for Immigrants and Students from Asia,” History of Education Quarterly 60.4 (Nov. 2020): 644-654.https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-of-education-quarterly/article/abs/confronting-race-and-ethnicity-education-and-cultural-identity-for-immigrants-and-students-from-asia/8A41D6658A5073A3466821DD58844577
Liping Bu, “The Role of International Institute of Teachers College in the Founding History of American Comparative Education,” Research in Comparative and International Education 15.4 (Nov. 2020): 437-452.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745499920969999
Liping Bu, “Liz Fee: Leadership in Asian Health History,” American Journal of Public Health vol. 109, no. 6 (June 2019): 971-872. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305098
Liping Bu. “Paul Monroe and the Origins of American Comparative Education” The Rockefeller Archive Center Research Reports (January 29, 2019): 1-12. http://rockarch.issuelab.org/resource/paul-monroe-and-the-origins-of-american-comparative-education.html
Liping Bu. “Anti-Malaria Campaigns and the Socialist Reconstruction of China, 1950-80.” East Asian History (December 2014)
Liping Bu. “From Public Health to State Medicine: John B. Grant and China”s Health Profession.” Harvard Asia Quarterly . 14, no. 4 (December 2012): 8-15.
Liping Bu and Elizabeth Fee. “Family Planning and Economic Development in China.” American Journal of Public Health . 102, no. 10 (October 2012): 1858-1859.
Elizabeth Fee and Liping Bu. “Isaac Williams Brewer (1867-1928): An Unsung Hero.” American Journal of Public Health. 100, no. 3 (March 2010):423.
Liping Bu. “Science, Public Health, and Modernization of China in Social Darwinian Context, 1895-1925.” Minguo Yan Jiu (Studies on Republican China). vol. 16 (winter 2009): 215-244.
Elizabeth Fee and Liping Bu. “The Origins of Public Health Nursing: The Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service.” American Journal of Public Health. 100, no.7 (July 2010):1206-1207.

Book Chapters:

“Paul Monroe—the Legendary Leader” in North American Scholars of Comparative Education: Examining the Work and Influence of Notable 20^th Century Comparativists (edited by Erwin Epstein), Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Routledge, 2019.
“Education and International Cultural Understanding: The Elite American Approach, 1920-1937.” In Teaching America to the World and the World to America: Education and Foreign Relations since 1870 , edited by Richard Garlitz and Lisa Jarvinen, 111-134. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
“Korean War Anti-Germ Warfare Posters.” In Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, edited by Michael Sappol, 198-199. Blast Books, 2012.
“Chinese Anti-Tuberculosis Flyers,.” In Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine, edited by Michael Sappol, 166-167. Blast Books, 2012.
“Introduction: Interpreting Science and Public Health in Modern Asia,” In Science, Public Health and the State in Modern Asia , edited by Liping Bu, Darwin Stapleton and Ka-che Yip, 1-15. London: Routledge, 2012.
“Beijing First Health Station: Innovative Public Health Education and Influence on China’s Health Profession, .” In Science, Public Health and the State in Modern Asia, edited by Liping Bu, Darwin Stapleton and Ka-che Yip, 129-143. London: Routledge, 2012.

Recent presentations:

Mediating Between the Global and the Regional: Knowledge Production, Science, and Practices in Modern China,” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 24-27, 2022.
“Anti-Epidemics: People’s Life and Social Development,” Renowned International Scholars Series on Epidemics and Society, Peking University (online), January 8, 2022.
“The Global Health Vision of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Development of Health System in China,” Renowned International Scholars Series on Epidemics and Society, Peking University (online), December 18, 2021.
“Public Health Mentalité and Modern Societal Development,” Zoom Presentation talk, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, June 4, 2021.
“Public Health and Nation-Building” Zoom presentation talk, National Library of Medicine, Science, Technology and Medicine Working Group, Maryland, October 10, 2020.
“Post-WWII Reconstruction and National Health Systems in Asia,” presented at 15th ICHSEA (International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia), Jeonju, South Korea, August 19-23, 2019.
“European Experience, Chinese Application: Creating a National Health System of State Medicine, 1920s-1940s,” presented at the 11th International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS), Leiden, the Netherlands, July 16-19, 2019.
“What Would 20^th Century American Leaders of Comparative Education Say about Education for Sustainability in the 21^st Century?” Plenary Panel 2C, Annual Conference of Comparative and International Education Society April 14-18, 2019, San Francisco.
“Medicine and Society: Public Health and Visions of Modern China,” talk given at National Technology University, Singapore, October 15-19, 2018. (invited speaker)
“Sanitation, Public Health, and Social Control in Beijing, 1920s-1930s,” presented at the Biennial International Conference of Society for the Social History of Medicine, Liverpool, UK, July 11-14, 2018.
“The Body Medical and Social: Western Concepts and Chinese Interpretations in the early 20^th Century,” presented at the 25^th International Congress of History of Science and Technology (ICHST), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 23-29, 2017.
“Understanding Human Body and Epidemic Disease: Western Concepts, Chinese Interpretations in Early 20^th Century,” presented at the Conference “Bodies, Healing and Culture: A Social History of Medicine in East Asia,” University of San Francisco Center for Asia Pacific Studies, San Francisco, November 5-6, 2015.
“Pioneering Chinese Female Doctors of Western Medicine: Their International Education and Career Life,” presented at 14^th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Paris, July 6-10, 2015.
“Humanitarian Relief and Social Control: Statistical Collection and Analysis of Health Data in Beijing, 1920s-1930s,” International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization, Fudan University, Shanghai, June 9-10, 2015
“Western Medicine and Chinese Women Doctors: Pioneers in the Field,” presented at the Conference on Western Medicine in China, Beijing, June 22-24, 2013.
“The Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Health Governance and Country Specific Practice in China,” presented at the Conference on Empire and Global Health Governance in Asia and the Pacific: History and Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, Feb. 27-28, 2013.
“John B. Grant: Public Health and State Medicine,” presented at the China Medical Board-Sponsored Conference on Medical Transitions in 20^th-Century China, Beijing, June 23-26, 2012.
“Visual Materials As Useful Research Sources.” Association for Asian Studies and International Congress of Asian Studies Conference. Honolulu, Hawaii. March 30-April 4, 2011.
“Cultural Exchange and International Relations: What’s Unique about the United States of America?.” International Conference on Academic Exchange and International Relations. Vienna, Austria. November, 2010.
“Educational Exchange and the Writing of International History.” Annual Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Madison, WI,. June 24-26, 2010.
“Anti-Malaria Campaigns and Socialist Reconstruction in China: 1950-1980.” Annual Conference of the Association of Asian Studies. Philadelphia. March 25-28, 2010.
“Fighting Malaria: Art, Politics, and Scientific Knowledge of Health in Socialist China.” Southwest Conference on Asian Studies. Austin, Texas. October 15-17, 2009.

Recent grants:

Grant-in-Aid Award, Rockefeller Archive Center, New York, 2018-19.
Barlow Award in Faculty Excellence, Alma College, 2013.
Research Grant, Rockefeller Archive Center, New York, 2012.
Scholarly Works Publication Grant, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health,2009-2011.
Research Grant, Rockefeller Archive Center, 2006-2007.
Andrew Mellon Fellowship, Needham Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, 2006.