Thomas Chan

Thomas Chan is an interdisciplinary historian of modern China specializing in the intertwined histories of medicine, cultural production, political violence, and state formation. Thematically, his work examines how governments use science and culture to turn marginalized people into expendable populations and persuade people to participate in intra-communal violence. His current book project, From Users to Criminals: Creating, Pathologizing, and Killing ‘Drug Criminals’ in Twentieth Century China, analyzes how from 1906 to 1953 the Republic of China and People’s Republic of China dehumanized drug users and traffickers to encourage collective identity formation and promote state-building. He received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego.