D. E. Mungello

D. E. Mungello, the grandson of Italian and German immigrants, was born in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1943. His fascination with history and with remote cultures drove his search to recapture the past in ten books and numerous articles. At the beginning of his search, he lived and studied in Dallas, Washington, D.C., Copenhagen and Taipei. After completing a doctorate in History at the University of California at Berkeley, he did research in Germany (1978-80 and 1984), Shanghai (1986), Hangzhou (1989), Jinan (1997), and Rome (1999). To revive intellectual contacts with Chinese scholars who had become isolated by years of communist rule, he founded a specialized journal dealing with Sino-Western history in 1979. His books on Sino-Western history have included the history of Christianity in China as well as sensitive topics, such as, female infanticide in China and Western queers in China. Three of his books have been translated into Chinese and Korean. He has also published articles in VIA (Voices of Italian Americana) and the Gay and Lesbian Review. Most recently he has published a memoir of his contentious Italian family. He began his teaching career at Lingnan College in Hong Kong (1973-74), taught Chinese history in German at the University of Düsseldorf (1980 and 1984), and since 1994 has been professor of history at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.