Associate Professor

PhD 2007, Cornell University

email tracy.barrett@ndsu.edu

422K Minard Hall

Areas of Interest and Specialization: Modern Chinese History, Modern Southeast Asian History, Overseas Chinese History, Vietnamese History, Urban History, Transnational History.   

Dr. Barrett is a dyed-in-the-wool Texan who spent the bulk of her childhood in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.  She received her undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where she studied History and East Asian Studies and spent a year as an exchange student at Beijing Normal University in China. After graduation, Dr. Barrett continued her studies at the Ohio State University, earning one Master’s Degree in Chinese History and another in Chinese Literature and Linguistics. Then she took some time off, moving to Japan to teach English in rural Gunma prefecture, where she honed her karaoke, bowling, and mountain biking skills to razor sharpness. During an exceedingly pleasant holiday in Vietnam, Dr. Barrett decided to return to school to study the historical connections between Vietnam and China.  For three years, she did research in the south of France, in south China, in Vietnam, and in Australia before returning home to finish her dissertation and produce twin boys. Before moving to NDSU, she taught for three years at Texas A&M University – Commerce. She loves travel and is always happy to regale passers-by with the harrowing tales of her international adventures. Dr. Barrett is currently completing a manuscript examining the structure and function of overseas Chinese societies and institutions in French Indochina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Publications:

PhD Dissertation: Transnational Webs: Overseas Chinese Economic and Political Networks in French Indochina, 1870 – 1945 (2007); “A Bulwark Never Failing: The Evolution of Overseas Chinese Education in French Indochina, 1900 – 1954” in Sherman G. Cochran & Paul Pickowicz, eds, China on the Margins (Cornell University Press, forthcoming); “Storms of Fortune: The Bankruptcy of Cholon’s Ly Family, 1871-1913” in Michael J. Montesano, ed., Network And Firm In The Study Of Southeast Asian Business History (manuscript in press); “Une Forteresse Culturelle: L’évolution de l’éducation des Chinois outre-mer en Indochine française, 1900 – 1954" (manuscript in press)  

Grants:

Knight Biggerstaff Fellow (CU), 2005

Henry Luce Foundation ANU-SEAF Fellow, 2003

Fulbright Fellow, 2001

FLAS Fellow, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001 (OSU, CU)

Lam Family South China Research Travel Grant (CU), 2000

Fulbright Program Fellowship (VASI), Summer 1999

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sage Fellow, 1998-9

Courses Taught:

History 280: History of East Asia to 1600

History 281: History of East Asia from 1600 to the present

History 499: Vietnam: 125 Years of Conflict

History 499: History of Modern China

History 499: War and Memory in the Pacific

History 780: Novel Histories: Nationalism and Anticolonialism in Southeast Asian Literature