The Rhode Island Historical Society will host a talk on Thursday, August 15th, at 12 p.m. by inaugural Hittner Research Fellow with Qiong Wu on her research project Fortune and Fantasy: Canton in the Eyes of Providence in Early America.
Qiong will also discuss her recent research at the Robinson Research Center as she attempts to better understand how trade relations between Canton and Providence merchants shaped the course of Rhode Island’s socioeconomic and political development in the decades after the American Revolution.
Qiong is a first-year graduate student in the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History at The College of William and Mary. Qiong’s research project, Fortune and Fantasy: Canton in the Eyes of Providence in Early America, examines the transculturation of economic ideas, cultural and material artifacts, and social practices between China and the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century. Qiong is currently a Digital Humanities Apprentice at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. Prior to attending William and Mary, Qiong earned her MA in American Studies from Brown University in 2022 and an MA in American Studies from the Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2023.
Attendance is free, but registration is required. Guests can register here.
Guests are welcome to bring food to this lunchtime talk.