Campus Directory

Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself

Department/ College/ Unit History Department

Title Associate Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation History of Consciousness Department

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Primary Office Location Humanities Building 1
536 Humanities 1

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours Fall 2026: Thursday 12–1 PM or by Zoom appointment

Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services

Biography, Education and Training

Series Editor, Routledge Sinophone Humanities
Faculty Advisory Board, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, 2024–2027
ORCID: 0000-0002-3262-4593

Ph.D., History, UCLA
MS, Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech
BS, Civil Engineering, Tamkang University, Taiwan

Research Interests

Early modern China (1600–1900), the world history of science and technology, global environmental history, the humanities in the age of artificial intelligence, and the rise of China in world politics.

Awards, Honors and Grants

Hypothes.is Social Learning Innovator Award, 2023

Selected Publications

Hu, Minghui. The Calculating State: State Capacity, Technoscience, and the Reconfiguration of Modern Power in China, forthcoming in Routledge Contemporary China Series, 2027.

Hu, Minghui. Waiting for the Barbarians: A History of Geopolitics in Early Modern China, 1680–1850. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2026.

Hu, Minghui. Zhongguo xiandaixing de qidian: Dai Zhen de xin gudian yuanjing 中国现代性的起点：戴震的新古典愿景 [The Starting Point of Chinese Modernity: Dai Zhen’s New Classical Vision]. Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2026.

Hu, Minghui, and Elverskog, Johan (eds). Cosmopolitanism in China, 1600-1950. Cambria Sinophone World Series. Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2016.

Hu, Minghui. China's Transition to Modernity: The New Classical Vision of Dai Zhen. Seattle, Wash.: Univ. of Washington Press, 2015.

Ishii, Tsuyoshi, Minghui Hu, and John Ewell. “Tradition and the Dilemma of the Modern: Zhang Taiyan and Maruyama Masao.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 85, no. 1 (2025).

Hu, Minghui. “The Task of the Human-Machine Translator: Scaling Intelligence and Preserving Transcendence.” Itinera 30 (2025).

Hu, Minghui. “A Preliminary Exploration of Dai Zhen’s Natural Philosophy.” In Dao Companion to Dai Zhen’s Philosophy, edited by Zemian Zheng, 177–200. Cham: Springer, 2026.