Austin College
ASIANetwork-Luce Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Asian Studies
Sherman, TX
2017 - 2019
Larissa Pitts is an assistant professor in the Department of History. Though she specializes in the history of Modern China, she also teaches courses in East and Southeast Asian History, as well as world history. Prof. Pitts’ classes ask students to engage with the world from the perspective of East and Southeast Asians in order to think critically about the world that was created in the twentieth century. She pays particular attention to the histories of colonialism, nationalism, communism, and the environment in her teaching.
Prof. Pitts’ current research focuses on the history of Arbor Day in Republican China (1911 – 1949). She argues that Republican governments invented their own versions of modern environmentalism centered around Arbor Day tree-planting projects. This modern Chinese environmentalism was used in an attempt to solidify political authority, improve China’s image abroad, as well as resolve ecological and timber supply crises.
Prof. Pitts’ current research focuses on the history of Arbor Day in Republican China (1911 – 1949). She argues that Republican governments invented their own versions of modern environmentalism centered around Arbor Day tree-planting projects. This modern Chinese environmentalism was used in an attempt to solidify political authority, improve China’s image abroad, as well as resolve ecological and timber supply crises.
Education
- MA, University of California Berkeley
- PHD, University of California Berkeley
Organization
- History
Office Location
- College of Arts & Sciences 1 M1-107
Mail Drop
- CL-AC1
Experience
University of California, Berkeley
PhD Student in History, East Asia: China
Berkeley, CA
2010 - 2017
Mount Holyoke College
BA Student in Asian Studies
South Hadley, MA
2005 - 2009
Selected Publications
Conference Presentation
Planting National Trees in the Borderlands: The Ecological Impact of Republican National Forestry Policy on Jilin Province
Pitts, Larissa
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, Association for Asian Studies (2022)
Invited Speaker
Inventing Modern Environmentalism: Arbor Day in Republican China
Pitts, Larissa
West Lafayette, IN, Purdue University (2022)
Invited Speaker
Feminism in WWII-Era China
Pitts, Larissa
International Women's Day Teach-In, Hamden, CT, Quinnipiac University (2022)
Conference Presentation
Teaching 21st-Century Historical Thinkers
Pitts, Larissa
Teaching History Writing Conference, New York, NY, CUNY (2021)
Book review
Review of Miller, Ian Matthew, Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China
Pitts, Larissa
H-Net Environment May (2021)
Peer Reviewed Journal
Unity in the trees: Arbor Day and Republican China, 1915 - 1927
Pitts, Larissa
13(2) Journal of Modern Chinese History 296 - 318 Fall (2019)
Faculty Workshop
The Abortive Forest Law of 1914: Russian Timber Merchants, Chinese ‘Traitors,’ and the Collapse of Modern Chinese Environmental Law
Pitts, Larissa
American Society for Legal History Pre-Conference Workshop on Law and Empire in Sino-Asian History, Cambridge, MA (2019)