5:10 p.m., April 23, 2007--David Pong, professor of history and director of UD's East Asian Studies Program, will serve as the external examiner at a doctoral dissertation examination for St. Antony's College, at Oxford University on April 24.

A world authority on the history of industrialization in China in the 19th and early 20th century, he will conduct the viva voce on the dissertation that deals with the transfer of Western technology to China.

“Each Ph.D. student who finishes his or her dissertation has to defend it orally (viva voce) before the dissertation director, a faculty from Oxford and an external examiner, usually a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in the field,” Pong explained. “It is quite an honor to have been invited to serve as external examiner by such a university as Oxford.”

Pong chaired UD's Department of History from 1992-98 and has been director of the East Asian Studies Program since its inception in 1989. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Modern China, scheduled to be published in February 2009. The publication will contain an estimated 1.2 million words and will be the largest encyclopedia on modern China ever published.

Pong's research interests include the history of late Imperial China before 1912, including industrial development and industrial relations in late Qing China, interactions between China and the West, aspects of naval construction, training and culture, public finance in late Imperial China, Taiwan up to 1895 and the teaching of Asian history in schools.

Photo by Kathy Atkinson