Dr. Ruochen Chen is a historian of modern China whose research sits at the intersection of state formation, technological exchange, and global maritime interactions across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

He is currently revising his dissertation, “From Natural Barrier to National Symbol: Technologies, State-Building, and the Remaking of the Yangzi River, 1843–1937,” into a book manuscript. His review article on Joseph Seely’s Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan’s Empire in Korea and Manchuria has been published in China and Asia: A Journal in Historical Studies. His article, “Self-Strengthening the Huangpu: River Management and State-Building in Late Qing Shanghai, 1864–1894,” is currently being prepared for resubmission to The International Journal of Asian Studies after peer review. 

His research has received support from several fellowships and grants, including the Luce/ACLS Travel Grant in China Studies, the AAS-Gale Non-Residential Fellowship, the AAS East and Inner Asia Council Small Grant, and the Stanford East Asia Library Travel Grant. 

Chen holds a B.A. in Museum Studies from Fudan University, an M.A. and an M.Phil. in History from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Ph.D. in History from Washington University in St. Louis.