Armin Selbitschka

Biography

Armin Selbitschka is Assistant Professor of Ancient Chinese History, Global Network Professor, NYU Shanghai, NYU. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he taught at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich. He holds a PhD from LMU Munich and was a Humboldt Foundation Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Selbitschka is also affiliated with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW). Professor Selbitschka’s research interests are social and religious history of late pre-imperial and early imperial China as well as archaeology of the early Silk Road(s). Moreover, his work critically examines the complex interrelation between material culture (including excavated manuscripts) and transmitted literature. His book Prestigegüter entlang der Seidenstraße? Archäologische und historische Untersuchungen zu Chinas Beziehungen zu Kulturen des Tarimbeckens vom zweiten bis frühen fünften Jahrhundert nach Christus [Prestige Goods on the Silk Road? An Archaeological and Historical Study of Chinese Relations with Cultures of the Tarim Basin from the 2nd through early 5th Centuries CE] was published by Harrassowitz in Wiesbaden in 2010. In addition, his work has appeared in Asia Major (AM), World Archaeology, and the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (BMFEA). Professor Selbitschka has been a fellow of the German Research Foundation [Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG] Research Training Group [Graduiertenkolleg] “Forms of Prestige in Ancient Cultures” at LMU Munich. He was also LMU Munich-UC Berkeley Research in the Humanities Short-term Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley.

Research Interest

Early China studies, Chinese archaeology, Silk Road studies / intercultural contacts