Dorothy Ko

Professor of Chinese History, Chair of Department of History at Barnard College

Office: Milstein 803
Office Hours: On leave for the 2020-2021 AY
Phone: (212) 854-9624
Email: dk2031@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Stanford University
MA: Stanford University
PhD: Stanford University

Classes Taught

HIST BC2861 Chinese Cultural History
HIST BC2865 Gender and Power in China
HIST BC3514 Historical Approaches to Feminist Questions

Research Interests

History of China, Gender, History of science, technology and medicine

Professor Ko’s research interest is the everyday lives of women in China –along with the domestic objects they made by hand–as a significant part of country’s cultural, economic and political development. She works at the intersections of anthropology, history, and women’s studies. Ko’s 2005 book, Cinderella Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding, won the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize of the American Historical Association. Recently, she has been turning her attention to the skills of women’s artisans such as embroiderers, stone carvers, and ceramic artists. She is also co-editor of Women and Confucian Cultures in Pre-modern China, Korea, and Japan. Ko’s courses include Chinese cultural history, body histories, women and culture in 17th century China, and Confucian cultures.

Ko earned undergraduate and advanced degrees at Stanford University, including the doctorate. She has received a number of fellowships and awards. She was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (2000-2001), a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2000-2001) and a fellow at the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University (1999-2000). Before joining the Barnard faculty in 2001, Professor Ko taught at Rutgers University.

Selected Publications

The Social Life of Inkstones: Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China (Washington, 2017)

Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (University of California, 2005)

Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-century China (Stanford, 1994)