Ningxin Gao is a Ph.D. candidate in American history at Wuhan University, China. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century U.S. history, with particular interests in slavery, the Civil War, and transnational history. Her dissertation explores the evolution of antislavery politics in the Old Northwest from the perspective of political democratization, highlighting the region’s unique trajectory and its broader influence on national anti slavery movements before the Civil War. Supported by a fellowship from the Graduate School of Wuhan University, she is currently conducting six months of archival research at Brown University under the guidance of Professor Seth Rockman. 

Ningxin is especially appreciative of the abundant resources available at Brown related to the history of slavery. She serves as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of History and a Graduate Fellow at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. She will also have the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, which will convene here in Providence this July.

“I am very excited to bolster the scholarly connection between Brown University and scholars at Wuhan University," said Seth Rockman. "Ningxin is going to find amazing things in Brown’s special collections, and her archival work will enhance Chinese understandings of the American past."