Rivi Handler-Spitz
Rivi Handler-Spitz studies, teaches, writes and draws about Chinese literature, comparative literature, and early modern (16-18th c.) cultural and intellectual history. She has studied modern and classical Chinese in Mainland China and Taiwan, as well as at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, where she also studied French and Latin. Before joining the faculty at Macalester, she taught courses on Chinese language and literature, world literature, and comparative literature at Brown University and Middlebury College.
Current Projects
Rivi is currently researching, writing, and drawing a book-length graphic narrative on the international and racial history of Chinese script reform. One chapter, “Savage Script: How Chinese Writing Became Barbaric”, appeared in Global Anti-Asian Racism (Columbia University Press, 2024).
Other recent and forthcoming work explores the ethical dimensions of teacher-student relationships in late imperial China as depicted in Neo-Confucian 語錄 yulu, texts that record conversations between teachers and students.
Public Scholarship in Graphic Narrative Format
- “Visa Chaos: What 6 Chinese Students Say.” Inside Higher Ed. Sept. 26, 2025.
- “Caution: No Trigger Warning.” Inside Higher Ed. Aug. 20, 2018.
Books
- Symptoms of an Unruly Age: Li Zhi and Cultures of Early Modernity (University of Washington Press, 2017).
- A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep (Hidden) (Columbia University Press, 2016). Co-edited with Haun Saussy and Pauline Lee.
- The Objectionable Li Zhi: Fiction, Criticism, and Dissent in Late Ming China (University of Washington Press, 2021). Co-edited with Haun Saussy and Pauline Lee.
Fellowships and Grants
2024-2025 Getty Research Institute
2023-2026 British Academy, Chinese Global Orders
2023-2024 Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
2020-2021 National Humanities Center
Interviews
On Savage Script (in Mandarin)
On “Recorded Sayings” (語錄 yulu)
On A Book to Burn and A Book to Keep (Hidden)
On The Objectionable Li Zhi: Fiction, Criticism, and Dissent in Late Ming China.
Courses Taught at Macalester
- China at the Dawn of Globalization
- Cramming for the Exam: Education in Chinese Literature and History
- Opulence and Decadence: China, Europe, and the Early Modern World
- Asian Humanities: Adaptations and Appropriations
- Literature and Social Reform in Modern China
- Masterpieces of Chinese Literature
- Teachers and Students
- The Art of Writing in China
- China on the Map
- Literature and the Arts of Empire
- Women, Warriors, Secrets, and Snakes
- Chinese 101
- Classical Chinese