About

Thomas Mullaney is a Professor of History and a Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures by courtesy at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, an M.A. in Humanities from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in International Studies & East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the history of technology, information, and media in China, with particular interest in Chinese-language computing, type design, and the history of information technology in East Asia. He is the author or lead editor of seven books, including The Chinese Typewriter, Your Computer is on Fire, Coming to Terms with the Nation, and the forthcoming The Chinese Computer, which is the first comprehensive history of Chinese-language computing. His work has been published in prominent journals and featured in major media outlets, and he has delivered invited lectures at institutions such as Google, Microsoft, and Adobe. Mullaney is also the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress and a Guggenheim Fellow. His research explores the intersections of cultural history, technology, and globalization, emphasizing the historical development of Chinese typographic and computing practices and their broader social and political implications.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Speech recognition

Selected publications

• Nineteenth-Century Media Technologies

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2024-09-10

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• 9 Nineteenth-Century Media Technologies

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2024-09-06

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Where Research Begins

  2022 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science

  "This book leads you to your research project while keeping your own preferences, abilities, and values centered. The authors place a strong and welcome emphasis on finding a research project that is right for you and that matters to you. The book includes student-tested exercises and many excellent examples of how-to-do-it and how-not-to. Each chapter includes "Try This Now" exercises and games designed to help you achieve a specific set of goals: generating questions, refining questions, discovering the patterns that connect the questions together, and the problem that motivates you-and other researchers. "Commonly Made Mistakes" are highlighted, as is advice for when and how to approach a "Sounding Board" (a teacher, mentor, or other advisor). At the close of each chapter, the key tools and exercises are revisited, providing a clear sense of the benchmarks you've reached"--

  PublisherDOI

• Typing Is Dead

  The MIT Press eBooks · 2021 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Speech recognition
  PublisherDOI

• NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021-01-26 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Your Computer Is on Fire

  The MIT Press eBooks · 2021 · 27 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science

  The Cloud is a Factory / Nathan Ensmenger -- Your AI is a human / Sarah T. Roberts -- A network is not a network / Benjamin Peters.

  PublisherDOI

• CHAPTER 4 CHARACTER INPUT

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2020-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Index

  2019-12-31

  paratext1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Appendix E: Population Sizes of Groups Researched during Phase One and Phase Two

  2019-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 4. The Consent of the Categorized

  2019-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• A History of the Impact of Euro-American Linguistic Technologies on Chinese Information Infrastructure

  NSF · $198k · 2012–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Lisa Gitelman

  New York University

  3 shared

• Eric Vanden Bussche

  2 shared

• James Leibold

  La Trobe University

  2 shared

• Stéphane Gros

  Campus Condorcet

  2 shared

• Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke

  1 shared

• Christian Henriot

  Aix-Marseille Université

  1 shared

• David McClure

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1 shared

• Christopher Rea

  Shanghai International Studies University

  1 shared

Labs

• Vice Provost for Student AffairsPI

Awards & honors

• John K. Fairbank Prize
• Guggenheim Fellowship
• Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship
• Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar (for DHAsia)
• Stanford VPTL Major Grant in support of "Massively Multiplay…