Professor
Ph.D., History, 1981, University of Washington
Office: UW1-248
Phone: 425.352.5226
Email: awood@u.washington.edu
Website: http://faculty.washington.edu/awood/
Mailing: Box 358530, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011-8246
Teaching
The Roman orator and philosopher Cicero once wrote that "historia magistra vitae"-history is the teacher of life. In teaching Chinese history and world history, I have three goals: 1) to cultivate wisdom as well as knowledge; 2) to understand the present by learning from the past experience of others; and 3) to become more aware of the global dimensions of all human activity. In the classroom I aim to treat students, insofar as it is possible to do so, as whole persons.
Recent Courses Taught
BIS 334 Traditional China
BIS 427 Global History I
BIS 402 Modern China
BIS 303 History and Globalization
Research/Scholarship
I was trained as a historian of China, specifically Chinese intellectual history. In the past few years, I have been teaching and writing about global history and globalization.
Selected Publications
"What is Renewal? Why Now?" in Education and the Making of a Democratic People, ed. By John Goodlad, Roger Soder, and Bonnie McDaniel. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2008.
Asian Democracy in World History. New York: Routledge, 2004. Translated into Farsi, 2005
Entries (ten) on Ming dynasty philosophers for the Encyclopedia of Confucianism, edited by Yao Xinzhong, London: RoutledgeCurzon Press, 2003
What Does It Mean to be Human?: A New Interpretation of Freedom in World History. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
World Civilizations. Co-author, ninth edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.
"Nelson Trusler Johnson." Entry in Notable U.S. Ambassadors, 1775-1996: A Biographical Dictionary. Edited by Cathal J. Nolan. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood, 1997.
Limits to Autocracy: From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine of Political Rights. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995.