William G. Boltz is a professor emeritus at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and a scholar of manuscript study, philology, and textual criticism, known for his studies of the origin of the Chinese writing system.

Education and career

William G. Boltz attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and obtained his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Oriental Languages in 1965, 1969, and 1974, respectively. At Berkeley, he studied Chinese language and linguistics under Professor

Yuen Ren Chao Yuen Ren Chao (; 3 November 1892 – 25 February 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American linguist, educator, scholar, poet, and composer, who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonology and grammar. Chao was born an ...

, Chinese philology under Professor

Peter A. Boodberg Peter Alexis Boodberg (born Pyotr Alekseyevich Budberg; 8 April 1903 – 29 June 1972) was a Russian-American scholar, linguist, and sinologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley for 40 years. Boodberg was influential in 20th ...

, Chinese linguistics from Professor Kun Chang, and Romance philology and linguistics from Professor

Yakov Malkiel Yakov Malkiel (July 22, 1914 – April 24, 1998) was a U.S. (Russian-born) Romance etymologist and philologist. His specialty was the development of Latin words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes in modern Romance languages, particularly Spanish. ...

. In 1981, He began working as a Professor of Classical Chinese in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. In 2022,

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

reported that the University of Washington had investigated Boltz for multiple accusations of sexual harassment of students spanning several decades. Boltz received coaching from the university after several such incidents, as well as suspended merit pay increase for two years. He was permitted to continue teaching at the university. He has been quoted in the Times describing his actions as "poor decisions and wrong choices." As of 2022, Boltz is no longer teaching at UW.

Selected works

* Boltz, William G. (1994). ''The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System''. New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society.

References

Living people American sinologists University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Washington faculty Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-edu-bio-stub