Mark C. Elliott

Mark C. Elliott serves as Vice Provost for International Affairs at Harvard University and Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History, holding joint appointments in East Asian Languages and Civilizations and History departments. After earning his BA from Yale in 1981 and PhD from UC Berkeley, he established himself as a leading authority on Qing dynasty history (1636-1911). His groundbreaking work "The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China" pioneered the "New Qing History" approach, emphasizing Inner Asian influences on China's last imperial state. Before joining Harvard in 2003, he taught at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. As former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and current Vice Provost for International Affairs, he shapes Harvard's global engagement while maintaining his scholarly focus on Chinese-nomadic frontier relations and questions of ethnicity and empire. His expertise spans the last four centuries of Chinese history, with particular emphasis on the intersection of Inner Asian traditions with Chinese imperial governance. Beyond his academic work, he serves on numerous editorial boards and continues to influence the field through his innovative approach to understanding China's complex historical relationships with its frontier regions.