Research Excellence Award
Linda Benson
Professor of History

Linda Benson, professor of modern Chinese history and director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program, is an expert on the 20th century history of Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region in northwestern China. She has authored five books including "The Ili Rebellion" (1990) which remains the standard source on the subject, and "China’s Last Nomads" (1998) which chronicles the history and status of China’s Kazakh people. She is also the author of numerous chapters and journal articles focusing on Muslim China and Chinese minority policy in the northwest. She expanded her research to include matters of religion and gender in her most recent book, "Across China’s Gobi" (2007), which traces the lives of three British women who traveled throughout northwestern China and Eurasia in the 1920s. Her scholarship has been widely recognized, and is reflected in invitations to present work at national and international venues and to serve on editorial boards in the U.S. and abroad. She earned a 2004 Fulbright Hayes award, and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Hong Kong and a doctorate from the University of Leeds (UK).