Dr. Karl Gerth

Biography

Karl Gerth writes about the historical contemporary implications of Chinese consumerism. His latest book, 'China Goes, Goes World: Chinese Consumers Transforming Everything,' explores the wide-ranging ramifications and future implications of China’s shift to a market economy over the past thirty years. Professor Gerth’s previous book, 'China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of a Nation,' examines the connections between nationalism and consumerism in China during the latter half of the twentieth century. He has published and presented of comparative aspects of modern Chinese world history, including topics such as 'Consumption and Consumerism in East Asia' and 'The Origins and Implications of Chinese Brand Nationalism.' He has been awarded numerous grants to support his research from organizations including the British Academy, Fulbright Foundation, and American Council of Learned Societies. Currently, he is completing a book that uses archival materials, periodicals, and interviews conducted in China to investigate the survival of market practices in the nation’s urban centers since the establishment of Communist rule in 1949. Additionally, he is the Chinese co-team leader of the Oslo-based Ceres21 Project, which is currently investigating innovative adaptations in the automotive power industries in response to climate change. After receiving his PhD in modern Chinese history from Harvard in 2000, he taught at the University of South Carolina until moving to Oxford University in 2007 as a Fellow and Tutor in Modern Asian History at Merton College before joining UCSD in 2013.

Research Interests

Experience