Yingcong Dai

She received her B.A. and M.A. in history from Nanjing University (China), and her Ph. D. in Chinese history from the University of Washington in 1996. Before she joined the history faculty of William Paterson University in 1998, she taught Chinese history and East Asian history at Nanjing University, University of Washington (Bothell campus), University of Utah, and Virginia Commonwealth University. At William Paterson University, she teaches Chinese history at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Her current research interests are the frontier expansion and military system of the Qing dynasty of China. She has published several articles in those areas in Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press), Late Imperial China (Johns Hopkins University Press) and War and Society (Australian Defense Force Academy). She is currently completing her book manuscript, "A Key Strategic Area: The Southwest under the Qing, 1640-1800." Her next book-length project, "Qing Generals: The Demise of a Military Aristocracy in Eighteenth Century China," tries to shed light on the unique makeup and pattern of mobility of the military elite in the eighteenth century.