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BIOGRAPHY 

Victoria Cass specializes in the religions and literature of China. She received her Masters in Far Eastern Languages and Literatures from Yale University and her Doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Her book Dangerous Women, Warriors, Grannies and Geishas of the Ming was published in 1999 by Rowman and Littlefield to considerable review attention, and is used currently in college courses. It is in its second printing. Her current book is In the Realm of the Gods, Lands, Myths, and Legends of China. Victoria Cass has contributed to scholarly journals, as well as textbooks and encyclopedias, including the lead essay on women in religion for the Encyclopedia of Religion.

She has given public presentations at a variety of venues: universities and other public forum, teaching workshops, television, bookstores and radio. She lectures on the subjects of women in traditional Chinese culture, especially the infamous women of China-- female mystics, courtesans, healers and warriors-- as well as on urban popular culture of traditional China and on the popular religions of China. She has taught the Mandarin Chinese Language sequence as well as Classical Chinese Language, and has taught courses on Chinese literature and courses on Chinese culture. She received from the University of Minnesota the Distinguished Teacher Award in 1984. She was Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of East Asian Civilizations for nine years and Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations for nineteen years.

She has studied and worked in China since 1963, when she first studied Mandarin Chinese at the Mandarin Language Institute in Taibei and lived with a Chinese family. Since then she has completed additional language studies, graduate work, research projects and employment in China. For this project she traveled to Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Chongqing to meet with photographers to gather images for the book.

February 2013

Johns Hopkins Odyssey Program, Lecture: "Acres of Gardens in Grandiose Suzhou: Sacred Journeys and Ruthless Competitions."

February 2013

Lecture on religious context of Chinese gardens; OASIS lecture Series. Washington D.C.

April-May 2012

Four formal lectures as study leader for "Smithsonian Journeys: Classic China and Tibet":

• "10,000 Temples: Money and Gods in Late Imperial Beijing,"
• "The Ancient Kingdoms: from Theocracy to a State of Permanent War;"
• "The Medieval Powerhouse: China and the Silk Route Economies;"
• "The Private, the Eccentric and the Mad: Creativity in the Yangtze River Cultures."

March 2012

American Oriental Society: Lecture: "Players in the New Cityscapes: Actresses and Theater Culture in the Ming." Chair of Panel: "Ancient Literatures of China."

February 2012

Johns Hopkins Odyssey Program, Lecture: "Where the gods Visit: Sacred and Demonic Places in China and the Legends that Inform Them."

Fall 2010

Johns Hopkins, Odyssey Class: Two lectures on China.

• "Late Imperial China: From Economic Dominance to the Edge of the Precipice."
• "Urban Culture in the 20th Century: 'May Fourth' Artists and Beyond."

September 2009

Johns Hopkins Odyssey Program: "Chinese Popular Culture: A Thousand Years of Chinese History". Mini course on Chinese urban popular art forms, from ceramics, to opera to film. September 22, 29, October 6.

• Session One: "Storytellers and the Merchant Class: Long Scrolls and Long Tales: China depicts in print and image her own urban culture and urban expansion in the Song and Yuan Dynasties."
• Session Two: "The Great Ceramic Centers Drive the Economy: Innovations by the artisan class draw eager collectors from the upper classes of Asia and Europe."
• Session Three: "High Status for Lowly People: Actors and Actresses in urban theaters in the Late Imperial Periods. Urban theater of the Ming and Qing leads to the new medium of film in the twentieth century."

April-May 2009

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore: Three two-hour lectures for Adult Programs, Art 201: Asia:

• 4/29: "The Foundations of Chinese Civilization: Magic and Religion in Service to the State."
• 5/6: "Where the Silk Route Begins: Court LIfe and Court Authority in the Chinese Medieval World."
• 5/13: "When China Ruled the Seas: Merchant Princes and Literati Style in Late Imperial China."

March 17, 2009

The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore: Evening Lecture Series to the Friends of the Collection, "Commerce and the Arts in Late Imperial China."

September 2008

Hilliard Lecture Series, University of Nevada, Reno.

April-August 2008

Promotional work for In the Realm of the Gods:

• Fourteen radio interviews for stations in New York, California, Colorado, Florida, Connecticut
• Television: "Bay Sunday" May 16, CBS 5, San Francisco
• Television: "Good Day Colorado" April 15, KDVR-TV FOX, Denver
• Television: "Colorado and Company" April 17 KUSA-TV, Denver
• Television: Two Book signings in Denver (The Tattered Cover) and San Francisco (Books Inc.)
• Television: Interview for magazine, Women's World
• Television: Interview for "Eye on Books" with Bill Thompson, Website.

August 2005

International Conference of Asia Scholars, Shanghai China: "Goddesses by Default: the Origins of Courtesan Lore in the Religions of China."

March 2004

Association for Asian Studies, Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA: Chair of Panel; "New Forms of Epistemology in Late Imperial China."

March 6, 2003

"Shanghai Women"--Interviewed by Christina Wong of Canadian Broadcasting, Vancouver Public Radio for media piece on women of the early twentieth century in China.

Feb. 3, 2004

"On the Street: City Life in Sixteenth Century China" Workshop for Teaching East Asia, Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Boulder, Colorado.

January 28, 2004

"Ming Streets; Business and Pleasure in a City." Workshop for Teaching East Asia, Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Boulder, Colorado.

September 24, 2003

"Song City Life: Materials for Teaching About China,' Overview lecture for workshop on the Song Dynasty, Workshop for Teaching East Asia, Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Denver, Colorado.

January 2003

"Urban Change and Ideological Stasis, the Paradox of the Song and Ming States, Workshop for Teaching East Asia, Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Denver, Colorado.

Oct. 2001

"Ming Cities: Power, Pleasure, and Money." Workshop for Teaching East Asia, Social Science Education Consortium, Inc., Boulder, Colorado.

Oct. 2000

"Courtesan Radicals of the Twentieth Century," Mills College, Oakland, California.

May 2000

Guest on the "West Coast Live" radio program with Sedge Thompson, interview, San Francisco, California.

May 2000

Interviewed on Boulder, Colorado, radio station KGNU.

Dec. 1999-

"Women with Swords: Bad Girls of China," Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver Colorado

February 2000-

September 2000

Six lecture-slide presentations at bookstores in: 1. Cambridge, Mass.; 2. Chicago; 3. San Francisco; 4. Sonoma, Calif. 5. Berkeley, Calif.; 6. Reno, Nev.

April 2000

"Women on the Edge: Courtesan Radicals of the Modern Periods," Hillyard Lecture Series, University of Nevada, Reno.

March 2000

"Shamanism and the Origins of an Archetype," Washington College, Chestertown, Maryland.

1975-2000

Various lectures for both professional organizations and public venues on popular culture and women's culture in Traditional China

1984-87

Chair, Committee on Women in Asian Studies of the Association for Asian Studies

1984-87

Editor, Newsletter of the Committee on Women in Asian Studies

1981-1986

Numerous reviews of Chinese translation projects for National Endowment for the Humanities

1980

Review Committee, Committee on Scholarly Communications with the People's Republic of China

1976-79

Editor, Phi Theta Papers, Department of Oriental Languages, Berkeley (1976-79)