About

Allison Bernard is a scholar of Chinese literature, whose work focuses on drama, print and theatrical cultures, and intersections between literature and history. She is working on a book project on Chinese historical drama (focusing on Kong Shangren’s Taohua shan, The Peach Blossom Fan) that examines how theater came to be used following the Ming-Qing transition as a mode of historiography. In addition to her work on drama, theater, and performance, she is also interested in questions about how media shapes the reading and writing of early modern Chinese literature. Other areas of interest include Japanese literature and theater, poetry, ritual studies, visual and material cultures, and translation.

Allison earned her PhD in Chinese Literature from Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures in 2019. She also holds an MA in Chinese Literature from Columbia (2012) and a BA from Middlebury College in Chinese and History (2010). Before taking up her current position at Yale, Allison taught in the College of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University.