Melissa Dale

Melissa S. Dale has served as Executive Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies since August 2012.

Prior to joining the faculty and staff at USF, she served as Associate Director of International Relations at the University of California, Berkeley (Nov. 2011 – Aug. 2012) where she worked in the areas of international relations and development for the entire campus with a particular focus on prospect development and stewardship for leadership and major gifts from the Asia-Pacific region. From Sept. 2008 – Nov. 2011, she was Assistant Director for Strategic Planning at the Institute of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley where her responsibilities included strategic planning, project management, global communications, development, and event management. She previously worked at USF as the Associate Director of Research at the Center’s Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History.

Dr. Dale is also Associate Professor at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies. She received her PhD in East Asian History (China) from Georgetown University in 2000, an MA in Asian Languages (Chinese) from Stanford in 1991 and a BA in Oriental Languages (Chinese) in 1989 from UC Berkeley. Her research interests focus on the social history of late imperial China including Qing dynasty court life, eunuchs, Chinese-Western medical exchange, and gender studies. She has taught courses at Georgetown University, Santa Clara University, and UC Santa Cruz, guest lectured at UC Berkeley, and led the Cal Alumni tour to China.

• Social history of late imperial China including Qing dynasty court life, eunuchs, Chinese-Western medical exchange
• Gender studies

• Executive Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies
• Associate Professor at the Center for Asia Pacific Studies

• PhD, East Asian History (China), Georgetown University
• MA, Asian Languages (Chinese), Stanford
• BA, Oriental Languages (Chinese), UC Berkeley

• Inside the World of the Eunuch: A Social History of the Emperor’s Servants in Qing China, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2018.
• “Running Away from the Palace:  Chinese Eunuchs during the Qing Dynasty,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 27, No. 1 (2017): 143-164. 
• “Understanding Emasculation:  Western Medical Perspectives on Chinese Eunuchs,” Social History of Medicine 23, No. 1 (April 2010):  38-55.