Hello. I currently work as Publications and Communications Manager at the Council of Graduate School. I received my PhD in history from Brandeis University in 2018. I am a historian of American higher education and an intellectual historian of American China scholarship. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, and the Society of US Intellectual History Blog. I am in the process of transforming my dissertation on American China expertise in the mid-20th century into a book. For work inquiries please email me at linton.matt@gmail.com.

Research

My manuscript, Understanding the Mighty Empire: Chinese Area Studies and the Construction of Liberal Consensus, traces the development of university China studies and its relationship to the New Deal-style liberal politics between 1930 and 1980. The publications page lists my publications and talks. Full text posted whenever possible.

In addition to my manuscript topic, my scholarly interests include graduate education best practices, the history of higher education, and the relationship between ideas and institutions.

Any inquiries about my research or intellectual interests should be sent to linton.matt@gmail.com.

Blog

On this site I write an academic blog about issues pertaining to intellectual history and China studies. I also contribute to the Society of U.S. Intellectual History blog. You can see my most recent posts listed below:

“The Minimalism Morass,” January 23, 2020.

“More Than Just Packaging?: The Humanities and Interdisciplinarity in the Modern University,” March 14, 2019.

“On the Pleasures of Slow Reading,” December 12, 2018.

“The Bridge from Academe,” August 12, 2018.

“Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?: Outlaw Country’s Search for Authenticity from the Sixties Counterculture to Trump’s America,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, July 2, 2018.

“The Only One: Charley Pride, Darius Rucker, and the Colorblind Narrative in American Country Music,” Public Seminar (May 12, 2018).

“President Trump’s China advisor is headed to China. But most experts think he’s clueless,” The Washington Post (May 3, 2018).

“I Defended My Dissertation – What Do I Do Next?” January 22, 2018.

“Countrypolitan Nationalism: Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow’s Audiopolitics of Empire,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, September 4, 2017.

“Good Wives, Honky-Tonk Angels, and Cuckolded Cowboys: The Feminisms of Kitty Wells, Tammy Wynette, and Nikki Lane,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, May 15, 2017.

“Can a Country Girl Still Survive?: Female Country Musicians as Chroniclers of Rural Poverty,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, May 1, 2017.

“Any Enlightened Government: Mortimer Graves’ Plan for a National Center for Far Eastern Studies, 1935-1946,” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 24, No. 1 (Spring 2017): 7-26.

Review of Richard Jean So, Transpacific Community: America, China, and the Rise and Fall of a Cultural Network, Journal of American-East Asian Relations 23, No. 4 (Winter 2016): 407-409.

“It’s Only Business: Neoliberalism and the National Basketball Association,” June 18,2016.

“Areas of Concern: Intellectual History and the Challenges of Academic Globalism,” Society for U.S. Intellectual History, June 4, 2016.

“President Obama’s Moral Revolution and Its Dying Vanguard,” June 2, 2016.

“Architects of Capitulation: Assessing McCarthyism’s Charges Against University China Experts”, Conference Paper delivered at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, June 27, 2015.

“The Revolution That Wasn’t”, Review of Fred Turner’s The Democratic Surround, Society for U.S. Intellectual History blog, March 8, 2015.