Florence C. Hsia
Position title: David Hall and Margie Devereaux Professor of History of Physical Sciences; Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in Arts & Humanities; Associate Dean for Graduate Education
Email: fchsia@wisc.edu
Phone: 608.263.1784
Address:
Office: 4123 Mosse Humanities
Mailbox: 4028 Mosse Humanities
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00–2:00pm, Bascom 323
Biography
I’m a historian of science with interests in the history of astronomy, data and information practices, genres, and print culture. My current research concerns the movement of celestial knowledge, information, and practices within the early modern globe, as well as the history of sinology in early modern Europe.
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago, History, 1999
M.A., University of Chicago, History, 1995
A.B., Princeton University, East Asian Studies, 1990
Books
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Florence C. Hsia. Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Selected Publications
- Hsia, Florence. “Writing ‘celestial history’ in early modern Europe.” In Studies in premodern sciences in memory of Noel M. Swerdlow: antiquity to the Renaissance, edited by Francesca Rochberg. Cham: Springer, 2025. [https://link.springer.com/book/9783032040398]
- Hsia, Florence. “Out of habit.” In From Rome to Beijing: sacred spaces in dialogue, edited by Daniel Greenberg and Mari Yoko Hara. Leiden: Brill, 2024, 216–43. [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004694927_009]
- Hsia, Florence. “Table talk.” In Premodern experience of the natural world, edited by Maria Avxentevskaya, Katja Krause, Ahmed Ragab, and Dror Weil. New York: Routledge, 2022, 341–61. [https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003258704]
- Hsia, Florence. “Astronomy after the deluge,” in Science in the archives: pasts, presents, futures, ed. by Lorraine Daston, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017, 17-52.
- Hsia, Florence. “Chinese astronomy for the Early Modern European reader,” Early science and medicine 13:5 (2008), 417-450.
- Hsia, Florence. “Athanasius Kircher’s China illustrata (1667): an apologia pro vita sua” section in Paula Findlen, ed., Athanasius Kircher: the last man who knew everything (Routledge, 2004).
Advisor To
History Courses
- History of Science 201 – The Origins of Scientific Thought – Syllabus 2025 (pdf)
- History of Science 323 – The Scientific Revolution – Syllabus 2021 (pdf)
- History of Science 623 – Studies in Early Modern Science – Syllabus 2021 (pdf)
- History of Science 903 – Seminar: Medieval, Renaissance, and 17th-Century Science – Syllabus 2025 (pdf)
- History of Science 911 – Seminar: Eighteenth-Century Science