Bio
Christian Uhl pursued studies in Japanese Studies (major) and Chinese Studies (major) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg (both Germany), as well as at Nihon University in Mishima (Japan) and at the Shanghai Waiguoyu Daxue (China). He was awarded the degree of Magister Artium with highest distinction and subsequently earned his doctorate (Dr. phil., summa cum laude) from the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg. For his doctoral dissertation he received the JaDe Award in 2003. From 2003 to 2006 he held a postdoctoral position at Leiden University (Netherlands), where he later continued as a full-time lecturer. In 2007 he was appointed Professor of Japanese Studies at Ghent University, where he obtained tenure in 2010. He currently holds the position of a hoogleeraar (full professor).
Uhl has taught a broad spectrum of courses at Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Leiden, and Ghent, ranging from philosophy, intellectual history, the history of political ideas, and the history of Japanese literature to the general history of Japan and China, methodology, theory, modern and classical Japanese language, classical Chinese, Kanbun no kundoku, alongside a number of more specialized courses and seminars.
In his research, Uhl addresses questions in philosophy and intellectual history in Japan and China, approaching them from a historical-materialist perspective. His scholarly focus rests on the epochal transformations of orders of knowledge and their politico-economic infrastructures, as well as on the historically specific conditions of possibility that have enabled such transformative processes. Against this background, Uhl also occasionally articulates reflections on more general theoretical issues that extend beyond the conventional horizons of East Asian studies.
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