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Nimrod Baranovitch | Department of Asian Studies

Nimrod Baranovitch

Nimrod
Baranovitch

Senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies, University of Haifa (1995)

I was born in Jerusalem in 1965, and began studying Chinese with the late Dora Schikman when I was 10 years old. Today I specialize in the culture, society and politics of contemporary China. My research focuses mainly on popular culture and the politics of culture, collective memory and historiography, and ethnic minorities (mainly Mongols, Uyghurs and Tibetans) and their relationships with the Han majority and the Chinese state.

I completed my Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and Musicology at the Hebrew University, and went on to complete a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at Pittsburgh University under Professor Bell Yung in 1997. I did my post-doctoral studies at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University after receiving the Young Truman Scholarship in 2001. In 2003 I was granted a lecturer position in the then newly established Department of Asian Studies at the University of Haifa and was among the founders of the Department and its Chinese language program. In 2004 I was awarded a three-year research grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). In 2008 I was promoted to a Senior Lecturer and served as the Chair of the Department from 2008 to 2011. While heading the Department, I arranged several student exchange agreements with different Chinese universities and established a summer semester program in China for intensive Chinese language studies.

My book, China's New Voices: Popular Music, Ethnicity, Gender, and Politics, 1978-1997, was published in 2003 by the University of California Press. My articles have been published in the Journal of Asian StudiesThe China QuarterlyModern China, and The China Journal