Dr Carl Kilcourse

Lecturer in East Asian History

My profile

Biography

I’m a lecturer in East Asian history and a specialist in Chinese cultural history. My research interests include the history of Christianity in China, the construction of Chinese revolutionary ideologies, and cross-cultural (especially Sino-Western) encounters in nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. I am particularly interested in how Chinese individuals and groups have received and transformed imported belief systems (e.g. Christianity and Communism) historically. Within this broader theme, I focus on the relationship between language and culture, looking at how vernacularised texts (e.g. translated Bibles) have facilitated the localisation of foreign religions and ideologies in China.

I’m also a Mancunian and feel very privileged to be able to teach the subject I love in the city I love.

Academic and professional qualifications

PhD History – University of Manchester, 2013
MA History – University of Manchester, 2009
BA (Hons) Religions and Theology – University of Manchester, 2008

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy – 2017

Get in touch

0161 247 1718
429 Geoffrey Manton Building

Teaching

Why do I teach?

I teach to learn and to see other people growing as intellectuals and individuals. I believe that my role as a lecturer is not to transmit static knowledge to students, but to facilitate *their* exploration of complex ideas and historical processes. I try to empower students to see beyond dominant paradigms and to develop their own interpretations.

How I’ll teach you

My teaching is highly interactive and designed to facilitate the intellectual growth of all students. Students who attend my lectures and seminars are encouraged not to absorb passively my interpretations, but to express their own thoughts and to develop their own positions on important historical questions.

Supervision

I welcome enquiries from postgraduate students with interests in Chinese cultural history, modern Chinese rebellions and revolutions, and/or the history of Christianity in China. I have access to a wide selection of original documents relating to the Taiping Rebellion and Protestant missions in nineteenth-century China. I would be happy to discuss the utility of these materials with anyone interested in pursuing doctoral research.

Research outputs

My first monograph (Taiping Theology, 2016) examines the localisation of Christianity in the theology, ethics, and ritual practices of the Taipings, a revolutionary movement in mid-nineteenth-century China. The book not only reveals how Confucianism and popular religion acted as instruments of localisation, but also suggests that several key aspects of the Taipings’ localised religion were inspired by terms and themes from translated Christian texts. Emphasising this link between vernacularisation and localisation, the book demonstrates both the religious identity of the Taipings and their wider significance in the history of world Christianity.

I am currently writing a second book on encounters between Taiping rebels and Protestant missionaries at Nanjing. This project focuses specifically on the attempts of missionaries to convert the Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be the second son of God and younger brother of Jesus, to a more ‘orthodox’ form of Christianity. In analysing those efforts and their rejection by the Taipings, the book will reveal the religious and political dimensions of the interpretive conflicts that emerged between the two groups.