Dr Rana Mitter has been awarded a Leverhulme grant for his research project entitled The persistence of conflict: China`s war with Japan and its impact, memory and legacy, 1931 to the present.
The project will look at not just at the Second World War in China, which led to massive devastation with the loss of 15 million lives, but also at its lasting effects, and how this has affected China`s development through the 20th century and into the present day. The research will be carried out over the next five years by an inter-disciplinary team of historians and social and political scientists that will be put together over the next few months.
Commenting on the project, Dr Mitter said, This project is possible thanks to the many changes that have taken place in China over the last quarter of a century, such as the opening of new archives, that have allowed more discussion and study of this period. These opportunities and the need for the West to engage with China in the present and the future mean that this is the ideal time to initiate this research. The project is unique in providing a long-term perspective on the impact of the Sino-Japanese conflict and in viewing the development of modern China primarily through that conflict.`
Dr Rana Mitter is University Lecturer in the History and Politics of Modern China at St Cross College.
