Allison Bernard
MA Program Director
Allison Bernard
MA Program Director and Lecturer in Discipline
Office: 416 Kent Hall
Office Hours: TBD
Phone:
Email: aeb2197@columbia.edu
Educational Background
PhD: Columbia University
MA: Columbia University
BA: Middlebury College
Classes Taught
EAAS GU4031: Introduction to the History of Chinese Literature: Vernacular Fiction and Drama
AHUM UN1400: Colloquium on Major Texts
EAAS UN3119: Theater/Drama Traditions of China and Japan
EAAS UN3114: Chinese Theater and Drama
Research Interests
Allison Bernard is a scholar of Chinese literature and culture whose research focuses on Ming-
Qing drama, print and theatrical cultures, and the intersections of literature and history. She is
working on a book manuscript that examines the uses of metatheatre in and around Kong
Shangren’s historical drama, Taohua shan (The Peach Blossom Fan). This project reveals the
significance of theatrical media and performance practices for framing the political and
historical valences of 17th century dramas and demonstrates how The Peach Blossom Fan’s
uses of metatheatre serve as an innovative form of historiography (including in its treatment of
Ruan Dacheng: a blacklisted mid-17th century politician and playwright, who appears on stage
in The Peach Blossom Fan as a dramatic character).
In addition to her work on theater and performance, Dr. Bernard is interested in questions
about how media shapes the reading and writing of early modern Chinese literature. Other in-
progress projects include articles on early-mid Qing autobiographical playwrights Liao Yan and
Xu Xi, concepts of visuality and portraiture in Kong Shangren’s “portrait-poetry,” and the
emperor’s role type in early modern Chinese dramas.
Before joining EALAC full-time, she held positions as a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale
University’s Council on East Asian Studies, Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at
Wesleyan University, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Columbia.
Selected Publications
“‘Making History’: Metatheatre in The Peach Blossom Fan,” CHINOPERL (Journal of Chinese Oral
& Performing Literature) 40, no. 2 (December 2021), 99-127.
