GUIDA Donatella

Current position:
2021- Full Professor of History of China (ASIA-01/H History of East and Southeast Asia), Department of Asian, African and the Mediterranean studies, University of Naples "L’Orientale"
Member of the PhD program Committee “Asia, Africa and Mediterranean” of the University of Naples "L’Orientale"
2014-2021 Associate Professor of History of China (SSD L-OR / 23, History of Eastern and South-Eastern Asia), Department of Asian, African and the Mediterranean studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale", qualified for the full chair position from 2018 (10/N3);
2004-2014 Assistant Professor at the same university.

Education
1990 MA Degree in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, East Asia, at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", with a thesis entitled "Some descriptions of the "barbarians" of South-East Asia in Ming and Qing China", summa cum laude with the addition of a special praise from the Committee.
· 1997 PhD in Oriental studies (Far East Asian Civilization, VIII cycle) at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", with a thesis entitled "In the South Seas. The journey in Southeast Asia between reality and imagination: historiography and literature in Ming and Qing China".

SPECIALIZATION:
Her scientific activity is focused on the analysis of the social and intellectual history of Yuan, Ming and Qing China, with particular attention to the philological study of both historical and literary texts. In particular, she has dealt with travel diaries or manuals on Nanyang foreign countries, and also with the fiction that deals with travel abroad, on which she wrote a monograph (2007). This composite interest starts from the hypothesis that sources of various kinds reflect the image that a country and its people give of themselves and of the "other". The "we/the others" dialectic is therefore evident both in works that are the fruit of the imagination, and in works that should instead reflect direct experiences or else represent the mere reworking of previous texts. This is the context for the translation of Li Ruzhen's 19th-century Chinese novel, Destinies of Flowers in the Mirror (2016), which addresses fundamental issues of Chinese culture in an overseas context, poised between reality and fiction. Chinese travelers are confronted with different realities and reflect on themselves and the traditions of their world. This is the first translation into a Western language.
In 2008 a research project related to the strategies implemented by the Chinese emperors to ensure the legitimacy needed to govern took its start. First of all, official historiography, a powerful tool which, managed by the Tang onwards by a special government office, serves to systematically present the official version of the events relating to the previous dynasty and therefore to indirectly ratify the possession of sovereignty. At the same time, the traditional conception of the so-called mandate of Heaven (tianming 天命) also provides for the dissemination of culture to all peoples of the world and therefore relations with foreign countries assume key importance, as highlighted in previous publications (see also 2022). Finally, the study of female biographies, especially within official stories, demonstrates to what extent women, from empresses to heroines, serve as a necessary mirror of imperial virtues, as well as a model for the whole society. Research on the legitimation strategies of non-Han dynasties also falls into this vein. The work on "foreign" dynasties produced as the first result the volume (with M.Bernardini) "The Mongols Expansion, empires, legacy". (Einaudi, 2012) and recent articles (2018 and 2019) that highlight the continuity between the Yuan and the Ming.

· Awards and scholarships
2018 National Award for Translation, Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, for the translation of the XIX century Chinese novel "Destinies of the flowers in the mirror", by Li Ruzhen (published in 2016).
1998-2000 Post-doctoral fellowship, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation of Taiwan (ranked first in Europe).
1995 Erasmus Intensive Course on Chinese Local Gazetteers scholarship, held at the University of Leiden (Holland)
· 1991 Scholarship from the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China for a refresher course on the problems of teaching the Chinese language in Beijing; she subsequently stayed at Guangzhou Zhongshan University, carrying out her research in the Southeast Asian History Department.
·1987-1989 MAE scholarship for the study of the Chinese language and history of China, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

Participation in international scientific committees
2014-present Member of the selection committee for sinology- Tang Prize foundation- Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
·2020- Member of the International Commission "History and Archeology", The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P. (FCT), Ministry of Science, Technology and University, Portugal (Minister da Ciência, Technology and Ensino Superior)

Scholarly journals
since 2014 - Editor of the periodical Ming Qing yanjiu ISSN 1724-8574, published by the Department Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies of University of Naples "L'Orientale" from 2016 it is by the publisher Brill. She has worked for this journal since its foundation (1992).
2016-present Member of the Advisory Board of the Bochum Yearbook of East Asian Studies [Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung]
She is peer reviewer of several national and international scholarly journals.

Participation in national and international projects
• PRIN 2022 (PI)"Environmental Anomalies & Political Legitimacy in Global Eurasia, 12th-14th century"

• 2014-2015 PI research project funded by the Campania Region "Legitimacy in the Chinese imperial dynasties"

• PRIN 2004 (-2006) participant in the research "The imaginary and sentimental in China and some Asian countries" directed by P. Santangelo, University of Naples "L’Orientale"

Official & institutional positions
November 2015-2018, November 2018-2021: Director of the undergraduate program in Oriental and African Languages and Cultures of the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies
November 2015-2018, November 2018-2021: President of the College of Oriental and African Studies
2015- Delegate with Rector's appointment for Didactics of the Dept. AAM
2016-2021 DAAM Delegate for Didactics
2016-2019 Member of the University MOOC Commission
2017-2019 Member of the Joint Teachers-Students Subcommittee for DAAM
2013-2017 :Supervisor of a Research Fellowship of Mongolian Studies, Dr. Andrew Shimunek)
2014 President of the TFA Commission class AA46, Chinese language and culture·
2007- Erasmus manager for the UNO agreements with INALCO in Paris and the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
2007- Responsible for the agreements with the Beijing Normal University and the Shenyang Normal University

Teaching activity in Italy and abroad
· 2013- present Doctoral supervisor for the Phd program "Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean" of the University of Naples "L’Orientale"·
1990-2004 Chinese language teacher at IsMEO / Is.I.A.O., Rome
October 2013 visiting scholar in the framework of the Erasmus program at the Ruhr-Universität of Bochum, Germany
· April 2013 visiting scholar within the Erasmus program at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
· 2005-2006 adjunct professor, History of East Asia at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Rome "La Sapienza".
· 2004-2005 adjunct professor History of East Asia at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Rome "La Sapienza"
· 2000-2001 additional contract teacher at the University of Naples "L’Orientale" for History of China and Chinese Philology.
· 1991-2000 teacher of History of China at IsMEO / Is.I.A.O., Rome.


OTHER INFORMATION:
member of both the Italian and the European Association of Chinese Studies.