Limin Teh (PhD, Chicago, 2014) is University Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at Leiden University. Her research examines industrial work, capital, and empire in modern East Asia, with a focus on mining, global labor standards, and reproductive labor.

More information about Limin Teh

Fields of interest

Global labor history; Political economy of labor; Empire and colonial modernity; Modern Chinese and East Asian history; Reproductive and affective labor; Transnational circulations of capital and labor.

Research

Limin Teh (PhD, University of Chicago, 2014) is University Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at Leiden University. Her research examines industrial work, capital, and empire in modern East Asia, with a focus on mining, global labor standards, and reproductive labor.

Her first book, Laboring for Coal: A History of Chinese Mining Labor in Fushun Coalmine, 1900–1950 (forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan), analyzes coal extraction, labor regimes, and Japanese colonial power in Northeast China. She has also published on wage systems, labor contractors, and China’s engagement with the International Labour Organization in the early twentieth century.

Her current projects extend this research in two directions: one investigates the circulation of labor regulations and international labor standards in East Asia, and the other develops the concept of “archives of care” to explore how migrant workers create solidarity through affective labor and everyday practices of care.

Her work has appeared in International Review of Social History and International Labor and Working-Class History, among other venues. She serves on the editorial committee of the International Review of Social History and is associate editor of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.

At Leiden, she teaches courses on modern Chinese and East Asian history, labor and political economy, and supervises BA and MA theses across Chinese Studies, International Studies, and Asian Studies.

Education

• Ph.D. in Modern Chinese History, The University of Chicago (2014)

• M.A. in International Relations, The University of Chicago (2005)

• M.A. in Library Science, Rutgers University (2000)

• A.B. in Growth and Structure of Cities, Bryn Mawr College (1998)

Employment

Lecturer in Modern Chinese History, Leiden University (since 2014)

Key publications

• “Labor Control and Mobility in Japanese-controlled Fushun Coalmine, 1905-1932,” International Review of Social History (December 2015).

• “From Company Town to Industrial City: The South Manchuria Railway Company in Fushun, China,” in Marcelo J. Borges and Susana B. Torres, ed., Company Towns: Historical Studies in Global Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Teaching

• BA1 Chinese Studies: Modern Chinese History

• BA2 Chinese Studies: Work and Workers in Twentieth century China

• BA3 Chinese Studies: Imperialism and Nationalism in Modern Chinese History

• BAIS History: East Asia

• MA Asian Studies: The State in Modern Chinese History

Publications