Sam Minden

PhD Student
sam.minden@mail.utoronto.ca

Areas of Interest

  • Premodern and Early Modern Chinese History
  • Premodern and Early Modern Chinese Literature
  • Historical Fiction as a Literary Genre and Historical Writing
  • Adaptation Studies
  • Historiography

Biography

Sam Minden (they/them) is a PhD Student in the East Asian Studies Department focusing primarily on Chinese History and Literature. Their current research focuses on the evolution of Chinese historical fiction both as a literary genre and as a form of historical narrative within Late Imperial China. They are interested in the intersection of history and literature, as well as how fictional representations of the past effect how we understand historical eras and events. Outside of Academia, Sam is a consummate reader, a forever Dungeon Master in TTRPGs, and enjoyer of films both good and bad.

Sam's published work includes:

  • ON East, Undergraduate Journal of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto: “Walnuts and Women: Gender Roles in Post-IMF South Korea as Presented in Bong Joon-Ho’s A Higher Animal.” (2016)

  • Plebeian Volume IV, Undergraduate Journal of The Classics Student Union, University of Toronto, Toronto: “The Roman ‘Barbarians’ and the Barbaric Romans: The Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy and the Disappearance of Roman Power in the West.” (2018)

  • ON East, Undergraduate Journal of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto: “The Noble Prince and the Wily Advisor: The Partnership of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang and the Creation of the Ideal State in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” (2018)

Presentations

  Fifth Annual Conference of the Early Modern, University of King’s College, Halifax: “Compromises of a Christian Confucian: Matteo Ricci and the Struggles of the Jesuit Order in China.” (2017)
Second Annual Medieval Studies Undergraduate Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto: “The Power of the Bureaucrat: The Successes and Failures of the Government Systems of the Byzantine and Carolingian Empires in the Eighth and Ninth Century.” (2018)
  The Assembly of the Plebs: An Undergraduate Conference on The Classical World, University of Toronto, Toronto: “The Roman “Barbarians” and the Barbaric Romans: The Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy and the Disappearance of Roman Power in the West.” (2018)
Third Annual Medieval Studies Undergraduate Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto: “The Hero of a Thousand Genres: The Mythologization of Minamoto no Yoshitsune in Medieval Japanese Literature and Theatre.” (2019)
      Intimacies and Intimations: The Graduate English Association Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto: “ “I Will Better The Instruction”: Cultural Translations and The Curious Second Life of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in China.” (2021)
The 2023 History, Classics, and Religion Graduate Students’ Association Conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton: “Lament for Kaifeng, Reflections from Hangzhou: The Cultural Aftermath of the Jingkang Incident and the North-South Transition in Song Dyn
Joint Symposium on Chinese Economy and Society Departments of Economics and East Asian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton: “A Feast to Remember: An Analysis of the Feast at Hongmen as part of the Chu-Han Contention in Sima Qian's Shiji.”(2023)
2023 East Asian Studies Graduate Colloquium, University of Alberta, Edmonton: “Outlaws out of the Marshes: A Historiographic Study of the Later Chapters Shuihuzhuan.” (2023)
The 2024 History, Classics, and Religion Graduate Students’ Association Conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton: “Fire on the Water Beneath the Red Cliff: A Translation and Analysis of The Biography of Zhou Yu and the Battle of Red Cliff in the Sangu