Arif Dirlik

Arif Dirlik
Arif Dirlik speaking at the New School in New York City in September 2014
Born	1940 Turkey
Residence	Eugene, Oregon
Fields	History of China, postcolonialism
Education	Robert College, University of Rochester
Influences	Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Arif Dirlik (born in Mersin, Turkey in 1940) is a US historian of Turkish origin who has published extensively on historiography and political ideology in modern China, as well as issues in modernity, globalization, and post-colonial criticism. Dirlik received a BSc in Electrical Engineering at Robert College, Istanbul in 1964 and a PhD in History at the University of Rochester in 1973.

Dirlik came to the United States to study science at University of Rochester, but developed an interest in Chinese history instead. His PhD dissertation on the origins of Marxist historiography in China, published by University of California Press in 1978, led to an interest in Chinese anarchism. When asked in 1997 to identify the main influences on his work, Dirlik cited Marx, Mao, and Dostoevsky.

Dirlik presently lives in Eugene, OR, in semi-retirement. He most recently(Fall 2011) held the Rajni Kothari Chair in Democracy at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, India. In Fall 2010, he served as the Liang Qichao Memorial Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He will hold a brief appointment as Green Professor at the University of British Columbia in February 2016.

Dirlik taught at Duke University for thirty years as professor of history and anthropology before moving in 2001 to the University of Oregon where he served as Knight Professor of Social Science, Professor of History and Anthropology, and Director of the Center for Critical Theory and Transnational Studies. He subsequently accepted a short-term appointment as Chair Professor of Chinese Studies, Professor by Courtesy of the Departments of History and Cultural Studies, and Honorary Director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong-Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Asia Pacific Center for Chinese Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong He has served as visiting professor at the University of British Columbia, University of Victoria(BC), University of California-Los Angeles, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Soka University of America. He is the recipient of Fulbright, NEH, Chiang Ching-kuo, and ACLS fellowships. He has been a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies (Copenhagen), the Program in Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, International Institute for Asian Studies(Leiden and Amsterdam), the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics of the Central Bureau of Compilation and Translation in Beijing, and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of British Columbia. He has been honored with distinguished adjunct professorships at the Center for Marxist Social Theory of Nanjing University, Beijing University of Language and Culture, and the Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou.