Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
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mauracunningham.bsky.social
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
@mauracunningham.bsky.social
She/her. China historian and writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Also reader, knitter, Phillies/Flyers fan, road tripper.

https://mauracunningham.org/
If you're in need of a book that succinctly and clearly explains China's gaokao to a non-specialist reader, THE HIGHEST EXAM: HOW THE GAOKAO SHAPES CHINA, by Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li with Claire Cousineau, is the answer.

My WSJ review: www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
September 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM
The Phillies didn’t score 19 runs tonight, but there’s still something extra-satisfying about a win over the Braves.
August 30, 2025 at 1:35 AM
📍Bryn Mawr, PA
August 29, 2025 at 7:12 PM
📍 Harpers Ferry, Weet Virginia
August 27, 2025 at 3:38 PM
📍South Bass Island, Ohio
August 25, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Saturday book mail: thanks to @wwnorton.com for an advance copy of BREAKNECK: CHINA'S QUEST TO ENGINEER THE FUTURE, by Dan Wang. It immediately went into my vacation reading tote bag.
July 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Currently on my reading screen: REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS, coming in June from @uncpress.bsky.social. A great exploration by Sarah Fouts of food and labor, race, migration, discrimination, and local government in New Orleans.

uncpress.org/book/9781469...
April 2, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I didn’t make it up to campus for the Michigan China lunchtime lecture by @bennoweiner.bsky.social, but am luckily able to listen in via Zoom.
March 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
It’s even more shit to see it in person.
March 23, 2025 at 9:14 PM
If you’re at #AAS2025 and need help, the @asianstudies.org staff is easy to spot! We’re all wearing snazzy matching jackets this year to make us easy to identify.
March 13, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Setting out from the @asianstudies.org office on my #AAS2025 road trip. Columbus, here I come!
March 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
"The Economie journals were among the few surviving primary sources written by the community activists themselves. The books contained a history that revealed the multiracial character of New Orleans and a Creole identity that had been prized and debated." — Fatima Shaik

https://buff.ly/4gaR2Ku
January 22, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Eight years in Michigan has taught me I need at least one long weekend of sunshine and above-freezing temperatures to make it through a Midwest winter. I'm in New Orleans until Tuesday.

Which means I'm going to see what it's like when Louisiana gets snow. 🫣
January 17, 2025 at 10:33 PM
"It was fatalism that caused the dice to roll, a fatalism born of the mud-perch precariousness of a city site on a continental ledge where deluges and disease, and the occasional fire, fostered a laissez les bons temps rouler stance toward life."

#NewOrleans #History

https://buff.ly/3Pygajj
January 15, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Congratulations to @khirata.bsky.social on the publication of MAKING MAO'S STEELWORKS! My copy arrived recently and is now in a prime spot on my to-read shelf.

https://buff.ly/4guYAZr
January 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
#WhatmReadingWednesday: riding the bus from Ann Arbor to Detroit with a copy of the new book by @sepoy.bsky.social.
December 18, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Many months after several other #skystorians recommended I read THE SECOND GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENT: HONEYMOONING AND TOURISM AT NIAGARA FALLS, by Karen Dubinsky, I've finally started this wonderful book that blends together histories of tourism, commerce, media, and sexuality.
December 11, 2024 at 1:09 PM
Me walking out to our office Hershey’s Kisses dispenser every time I finish a small task today.
December 6, 2024 at 8:25 PM
I'm getting ready for Sunday's meeting of the Bløm Book Club by re-starting THE MEMORY POLICE, by Yoko Ogawa. I can see from my Kindle highlights that I read at least some of the novel in the past (I think for another book club), but—appropriately enough for this subject—I have no memory of it.
December 4, 2024 at 12:45 PM
One of the highlights of my job at @asianstudies.org is the opportunity to read new books in #AsianStudies and talk to authors about their work. Here's my latest author interview—an exchange with Elliott Prasse-Freeman about his ethnography of activism, RIGHTS REFUSED.

https://buff.ly/4fTKTmn
December 3, 2024 at 12:15 PM
Ready to imbibe a large mug of peppermint hot chocolate while watching its cinematic equivalent. #HATM
December 2, 2024 at 1:07 AM
Including me!
November 3, 2024 at 1:56 PM
Update: dream come true.
October 26, 2024 at 1:50 PM
Fully Gritt-ified for this morning’s Gritty 5K in South Philadelphia.
October 26, 2024 at 11:53 AM
Dinner and a book talk—happy publication day to @josephaseeley.bsky.social, presenting BORDER OF WATER AND ICE to @modernjapanhist.bsky.social right now.
October 15, 2024 at 10:10 PM