Prof. Dr. Barend Ter Haar

Professor Barend Ter Haar studied Chinese Studies at the University of Leiden, Netherlands as well as in China and Japan. He earned his PhD with a dissertation on the teachings of the White Lotus in Chinese Religious History in 1990. After several years of lecturing and research, including a directorate of the research programme “Endangered Minorities in Southeast Asia“ of the International Institute for Asian Studies, he followed the call of the University of Heidelberg for a professorship for Economic and Social History of China in 1994. He then found his way back to Leiden for a professorship for Chinese History in the year 2000 and from 2013 to 2018 to the University of Oxford as a professor of Chinese Studies on the Run Run Shaw Chair of Chinese. At present he is professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Hamburg, focusing on Chinese language and literature as well as a visiting professor at the Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

In his research he focuses on social history of religion and culture as well as on issues of ethnical identity, violence and fear, and social organization. He furthermore devotes himself to the research of the role of oral and written forms of communication with respect to historic change, social and gender differences, interpretation and performance to make visible the relevance of traditional culture and cultural patterns for today.

Further information can be found on professor Ter Haar's personal webpage.