Thomas Barrett

Thomas is a DPhil student in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford, Thomas was previously based at the University of Tokyo, where he was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science DC2 Research Fellow. His specialism lies in the history of late imperial and early modern China's international relations. His DPhil thesis, broadly conceived, seeks to evaluate the significance of Western staff who were employed in late Qing and early Republican China’s legations and consulates as a means to trace the professionalisation and institutionalisation of diplomacy, and furthermore the emergence of the 'professional diplomat' in the early modern Chinese context.