Understanding China’s Cultural RevolutionMaster ClassIn-Person
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m
Location To Be Announced
Led by historian Rebecca Karl, this master class will explore China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) in both narrative and analytical terms. Together, we will examine the movement’s major events and purposes, and consider how historians have interpreted its outbreak, appeal, content, and repudiation. The class will include visual analysis of Cultural Revolution–era posters, brief excerpts from contemporary performances, and discussion of two short readings—one providing an overview, the other a memoir from the period.
WORLD HISTORY, HISTORY, MODERN HISTORY
Rebecca Karl
Rebecca E. Karl teaches history at New York University. She is the author of a number of books and articles on modern Chinese history, including China's Revolutions in the Modern World: A Brief Interpretive History and Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World. She is a cofounder of the Critical China Scholars collective and coeditor of the online journal positions, which can be found at positionspolitics.org.