Education:

PhD, Australian National University, Canberra, 2008 
 

Fields of interest:

Modern China, from the middle of the nineteenth century until the present, with a particular focus on Chinese Christian history; missiology and east-west cultural exchange from the late sixteenth-century through to the eighteenth-century; the history of painting and photography in modern China.
 

Academic profile:

Professor Clarke teaches courses in the area of Asian history, having completed his doctorate in Asian and Pacific history at the Australian National University, Canberra. His doctoral supervisor was Professor Geremie Barmé. Professor Clarke’s particular focus is on the history and ongoing experience of Chinese Catholic communities, with special reference to the communities of Shanghai and Beijing. As a Jesuit he is also interested in the work of the Society of Jesus in promoting East-West cultural exchange from the time of the late-Ming dynasty, and so researches the life and work of such people as Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi. Other areas of academic interest include the role of the Catholic church in the development of art and photography in contemporary China, the history of pilgrimage in China, and the development of Chinese Christian iconography. He is also interested in indigenous history and issues in Australia. At present, Professor Clarke is working on a manuscript dealing with the history of the Catholic church in China since 1842, with special reference to the Jesuit-run orphanage (Tushanwan) in Shanghai.

  
Representative publications:

• “Beiping’s Chinese Catholic artists,” Religion and the Arts (forthcoming, 2010)
• Guest editor, September issue 2010 (forthcoming), China Heritage Quarterly, www.chinaheritagequarterly.org
• “Our Lady of China: Marian devotion and the Jesuits,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, 41/3, Autumn 2009
• “Communing on the internet: Chinese Catholics and their various uses of the web,” in Asian Studies Review, Volume 31, Number 4, December, 2007
• “Mapping for the Kingdom,” in The Great Wall of China, ed. Claire Roberts and Geremie Barmé (Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 2006)