Dartmouth Events

Dominic Sachsenmaier, Chair Professor of Chinese Studies at Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany with a focus in Modern China with a Special Emphasis on Global Historical Perspectives, is among Germany’s leading authorities on China.

Sachsenmaier reflects upon China as a contested concept in European intellectual and political life, drawing on contemporary and historical examples from the Enlightenment period to the present. Sachsenmair explains how China figured as both a subject of intellectual curiosity and a globally relevant power in European perceptions, bringing factors such as sociologies of knowledge, patterns of ignorance, politics of the self, and circulating transnational narratives into the picture. The Harris Program was created in 1987 to strengthen relationships between Dartmouth College and academic institutions in Germany, toward promoting a deeper understanding between the two countries.