Sinologist: Timothy Brook

Timothy James Brook

Timothy James Brook (Chinese name: 卜正民; born January 6, 1951) is a Canadian historian, sinologist, and writer specializing in the study of China (sinology). He holds the Republic of China Chair, Department of History, University of British Columbia.

His research interests include the social and cultural history of the Ming Dynasty in China; law and punishment in Imperial China; collaboration during Japan's wartime occupation of China, 1937–45 and war crimes trials in Asia; global history; and historiography.

Early life and education

Timothy Brook was born on January 6, 1951, in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, grew up in that city and currently lives in Vancouver.

After graduating from the University of Toronto Schools, Brook received a bachelor's degree in English literature at the University of Toronto in 1973; a master's degree in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University in 1977, and in 1984 received a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University, where his dissertation advisor was Philip A. Kuhn 

Academic positions

From 1984–86 Brook was a MacTaggart Fellow at the University of Alberta; from 1986–97 he progressed from Assistant to Full Professor at the University of Toronto; from 1997–99 he was Professor of History at Stanford University, and 1999–2004 he was Professor of History at the University of Toronto, and Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford. He came to University of British Columbia in 2004, and was Principal, St. John's College 2004–2009. He is also Academic Director of the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program at the University of British Columbia's Institute of Asian Research. He was elected President of the Association for Asian Studies 2015.