The Department of History is pleased to invite you to the 23rd Annual Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture. This year’s Sherman Scholar is Dr. En Li of the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. En Li will present “Betting on a New Life: The Chinese Diaspora through the Lens of Gambling.”

Dr. En Li is a historian of late imperial and modern China, focusing on the social and cultural history of China and overseas Chinese communities. She earned her PhD in History from Washington University in St. Louis and earned her B.A. and M.A. in Chinese Literature from Sun Yat-sen University in China. Her first book, Betting on the Civil Service Examinations: The Lottery in Late-Qing China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2023), highlights the significance of weixing, a highly organized lottery game where money was bet on surnames that would pass the civil service exams, and reveals critical development with Chinese culture and society in the late nineteenth century. She currently offers courses on the histories of China and East Asia, as well as Asian books and movies. Before arriving at UTD, she taught at Drake University and was awarded the University’s Arts and Sciences “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” Award in 2021. She was also nominated for the Madelyn M. Levitt Menton Award in 2022.

This lecture series is sponsored by a generous bequest from the Sherman family in honor of Derrick and Virginia Sherman.

Participants will include:
Dr. En Li, 2024 Sherman Emerging Scholar (University of Texas at Dallas)
Dr. Amy Gordanier (College of Charleston)
Dr. Carl Kubler (Carnegie Mellon University)
Dr. Tonio Andrade (Emory University)
Moderator: Dr. Yixin Chen (University of North Carolina-Wilmington)