UMass Amherst
Warring States Project Organization

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History and Structure

After a long early history as a personal research effort by Bruce and Taeko Brooks, The Project was established at the University on 11 June 1993 by Lee R Edwards, Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, to give an institutional home for their researches, and to provide a forum in which their results could be criticized and developed by discussion with other scholars, and eventually published. Support of the Project as a part of the College continued under her successors Joel Martin and Julie Hayes. Supplementary financial assistance was provided from 1997 by Vice Chancellor for Research Frederick W Byron and his successors Paul Kostecki and Michael Malone; our bookkeeper is Lisa Liebowitz, of the Research Office. John Mullin, Dean of the Graduate School, has provided journal space and mail services in the Goodell Building. The Office of Information Technologies has generously hosted the Project's web site, which (perhaps apart from that of the News Office) is the largest at the University. Chancellor John V Lombardi took occasional part in Project discussions and co-authored one paper for the journal; his personal support has continued under his successor Robert Holub.

The Project is listed as one of the University's Research Centers, but since 2004 has been technically a Department, reporting to the Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and, in parallel, to the Vice Chancellor for Research. It is one of the Affiliated Organizations of the Association for Asian Studies, and regularly hosts its own open session at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature. It has gradually become a focus of collaboration for approximately 150 international scholars in more than 20 countries worldwide (Mexico, Colombia, the US, Canada, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Israel, India, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea). Together, these make up what is informally called the Warring States Working Group (WSWG). Between July 2001 and March 2006, the Project undertook a formal cooperation with a team headed by John Page and Isabel Garcia Hidalgo at the Colegio de México, to complete a Dzwo Jwan Concordance, an important on-line Sinological reference tool, and subsequently contributed chronological material to the Thesaurus Linguae Sericae, located at Oslo and Heidelberg Universities. Senior Research Associate Sergey Zinin has created an even more impressive research tool, the CTexts site, located on the University server, which gives virtual concorded texts of all the Confucian classics and some other major Warring States texts.

Governance

The Executive Committee approves basic policies and major program initiatives, and provides continuous oversight. The present Committee is composed of:

The Project is assisted by a number of scholars at the University and at other institutions. Its publication program is directed by three Editors, assisted by an Editorial Board, who advise on policy issues and an Advisory Board, who are available to be consulted on particular issues, or to review manuscripts in their special fields.

Editors

Editorial Board

Advisory Board

Staff

The Project's core research and editorial staff staff presently comprises Research Professor E Bruce Brooks and Research Associate A Taeko Brooks, together with Editorial Assitants Larissa Kennedy and Patrick Draine, as well as occasional student assistants.

Senior Research Fellow Ralph D Sawyer

Senior Research Fellows

The Project from time to time designates nonresident Senior Research Fellows of established reputation and achievement, whose work parallels or complements that of the Project:

 

Project Donor Donald A Gibbs (Click for detail)

Support

In addition to its regular University support, the Project has been greatly assisted by gifts from institutions and individuals over the years.

Technical Assistance

For technical support in preparing the present web site, the Project gratefully acknowledges the initial assistance and advice of Margaret Burggren, Office of Research Affairs, and Art Clifford and Keith Paul of the University's Web Development Group, as well as several technically knowledgeable colleagues in the Sinological field. Pat Kochin and Michele Turre, of the Office of Information Technologies, provided basic instruction and guidance both before and after startup, which occurred on 22 March 2000.

More generally, several commendations from former University President William Bulger, and continuet recognition by his successor Jack Wilson, have been a sovereign encouragement, as indicating that the University recognizes the value of the Project's efforts, and finds those efforts to be appropriately placed at a major research institution.

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