2015
Mark Frank
- Doctoral Student
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
![Picture of Mark Frank](https://www.acls.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2843227F-4BE8-E411-9417-000C29879DD6.jpg)
Abstract
My project examines the role of material factors in the establishment and dissolution of Xikang Province (1939-1955), situated in present-day Western Sichuan at the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau. I focus on Xikang’s modern economic, legal and educational institutions, through which the abstract notion of the province as a political entity was rooted in the unique topography and economy of this region. My project aims not merely to chronicle the history of a single province, but to provide insight into how national modernization projects in general are influenced by material factors.