Christopher Pratt Atwood is an American scholar of

Mongolian Mongolian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia * Mongolian people, or Mongols * Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924 * Mongolian language * Mongolian alphabet * ...

and

Chinese history The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

. Currently the Chair of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

's East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, he has authored six books and published more than 100 articles on a wide variety of topics. Historian Timothy May described him as a leading scholar of Mongolian studies in Western Hemisphere. Atwood is a recipient of the

Order of the Polar Star The Royal Order of the Polar Star (Swedish language, Swedish: ''Kungliga Nordstjärneorden''), sometimes translated as the Royal Order of the North Star, is a Swedish order of chivalry created by Frederick I of Sweden, King Frederick I on 23 F ...

, awarded by the

President of Mongolia The president of Mongolia is the executive head of state of Mongolia.Montsame NW Agency. ''Mongolina''. 2006, , p. 42 The current president is Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. Political parties with representation in the State Great Khural nominate ...

and Onon Prize, awarded by the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit, and holds honorary doctorates from the

Mongolian Academy of Sciences The Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS; , ''Mongol ulsyn Shinjlekh ukhaany Akademi'') is Mongolia's first centre of modern sciences. It came into being in 1921 when the government of newly independent Mongolia issued a resolution declaring the e ...

and the

National University of Mongolia The National University of Mongolia () is a public university primarily located in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Established in 1942, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Mongolia, and was originally named in honour of then-Prime Minist ...

Education

Christopher Atwood received a Bachelor's degree at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he studied Tibetan,

and Chinese. He holds a Master's from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

, where he also obtained Ph.D. in Mongolian Studies, History and East Asian Languages and Cultures.

Career

Early in his career, Atwood worked for

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

and was a visiting scholar at

Inner Mongolia University Inner Mongolia University (IMU) is a provincial public university in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. It is affiliated with the People's Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and co-funded with the Ministry of Education of China. The ...

. He later taught at Indiana University from 1996 to 2016, serving as department chair and interim director of the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region. In 2016, he joined the

, where he is Chair of the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department. He has been actively interviewed by and consulted with the US government, American, Asian and European universities, international academic and professional associations and media on modern affairs and history and cultural aspects of Mongolia and China. His colleague, the historian Timothy May, described him as a leading scholar of Mongolian studies in Western Hemisphere. Atwood was awarded Honorary doctorate of

in 2019 and Honorary Doctorate, conferred by the Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of Mongolia, in 2011 for his significant contributions to Mongolian studies. The President of Mongolia awarded him the Order of the Polar Star on July 11, 2011. His work and contributions were recognized by several institutions, including Onon Prize by the

, Teaching Excellence Recognition Award (1998–99 and 2003–04); Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award (2000–01 and 2001–02); John G. Hangin Memorial Prize for Mongolian Studies; Denis Sinor Prize for best graduate paper in the Central Eurasian Studies Department. He has authored six books and published more than 100 articles and chapters in areas of history, ethnography, linguistics and politics. His book ''Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire'' was widely praised by scholars and readers interested in Asian history.

Books

* ''

The Secret History of the Mongols The ''Secret History of the Mongols'' is the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolic languages. Written for the Borjigin, Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and parti ...

'', Penguin Classics, 2023. * ''The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources''. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2021. * co-edited with Timothy May and Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog. ''New Approaches to Ilkhanid History'', (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 12 Nov. 2020) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004438217 *
Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire
'. New York (NY): Facts on File, 2004. * ''Young Mongols and Vigilantes in Inner Mongolia's Interregnum Decades, 1911-1931'', (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 04 Oct. 2022) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004531291 * co-edited with Ákos Bertalan Apatóczky. ''Philology of the Grasslands'', (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 16 Jan. 2018) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004351981

Selected Articles and Chapters

*�
The Empire of the Great Khan: The Yuan Ulus, 1260–1368
” in The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire, edited by Michal Biran and Hodong Kim, 107–80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. *�
Buddhists as Natives: Changing Positions in the Religious Ecology of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty
” The Middle Kingdom and the Dharma Wheel, 2016, 278–321. doi:10.1163/9789004322585_007. *�
Imperial Itinerance and Mobile Pastoralism
” Inner Asia 17(2), 2015:293-349. DOI:10.1163/22105018-12340046
Pu'a's Boast and Doqolqu's Death: Historiography of a Hidden Scandal in the Mongol Conquest of the Jin
Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 45, 2015, pp. 239–278. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sys.2015.0006 *
Jochi and the early Western campaigns
" in How Mongolia Matters: War, Law, and Society, pp. 35–56. Brill, 2017.
The Qai, the Khongai, and the Names of the Xiōngnú
International Journal of Eurasian Studies 2, 2015. *
Banner, otog, thousand: appanage communities as the basic unit of traditional Mongolian society
" Mongolian Studies 34 (2012): 1-76.
Soviet Russia and Imperial Japan: A Comparison of Their Ventures on the Mongolian Plateau
" in ノモンハン事件（ハルハ河会戦）70周年 2009年ウランバートル国際シンポジウム報告論文集 ��Collected Papers from the International Symposium on the 70th Anniversary of the Nomonhan Incident (Khalkhin Gol Battle), held in Ulaanbaatar, 2009” ed. Junko IMANISHI今西淳子 and Borjigin HUSEL, pp. 385–92. Tokyo: Fūkyōsha, 2010.
Mongols, Arabs, Kurds, and Franks: Rashīd al-Dīn’s comparative ethnography of tribal society
" Rashīd al-Dīn as an agent and mediator of cultural exchanges in Ilkhanid Iran (2013): 223-50.
Huns and Xiongnu: New thoughts on an old problem
" (2012).
The Notion of Tribe in Medieval China: Ouyang Xiu and the Shatuo Dynastic Myth
" Miscellanea Asiatica: Festschrift in Honour of Françoise Aubin (2010): 593-621.
Ulus emirs, Keshig elders, signatures and marriage partners: The evolution of a classical Mongol institution
’ in D. Sneath (ed.), Imperial Statecraft (Bellingham WA: Center of East Asian Studies, Western Washingtoon University, 2006), 141-74.
Validation by holiness or sovereignty: religious toleration as political theology in the Mongol world empire of the thirteenth century.
The International History Review 26, no. 2 (2004): 237-256.
Inner Mongolian Nationalism in the 1920s: A Survey of Documentary Information
" Twentieth-Century China 25, no. 2 (1999): 75-113.
Sino-Soviet Diplomacy and the Second Partition of Mongolia, 1945–1946
" In Mongolia in the Twentieth Century, pp. 137–161. Routledge, 2015 *�
Titles, Appanages, Marriages, and Officials: A Comparison of Political Forms in the Zünghar and Thirteenth-Century Mongol Empires
” Imperial Statecraft. Political Forms and Techniques of Governance, 2006. *�
The Mutual-Aid Co-Operatives and the Animal Products Trade in Mongolia, 1913–1928
” Inner Asia 5, no. 1 (2003): 65–91. doi:10.1163/146481703793647424. *�
National Party and Local Politics in Ordos.
�� Journal of Asian History, 1992. *�
National Questions and National Answers in the Chinese Revolution; Or, How Do You Say Minzu in Mongolian
” Indiana University East Asian Working Paper Series on Language and Politics in modern China, 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atwood, Christopher Mongolists Historians of Mongolia Historians of Asia Historians of China 21st-century American historians American ethnographers Living people Harvard College alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni Indiana University Bloomington faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty Year of birth missing (living people)