Dr Jose Canton-Alvarez is an LSE Fellow in Late Imperial Chinese History. He holds a PhD in Chinese History from the University of Granada. Since graduating, he has been an Assistant Professor of Chinese History at the Faculty of Philosophy and History, University of Lodz. He recently was awarded a Ho Peng-Yoke Fellowship at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, where he also was granted a Jing Brand Fellowship 2017. He also was a British Inter-University China Centre Fellow at Manchester Museum in 2015. 

Jose’s research interests concern the role of opium in traditional Chinese medicine from the Song to early Qing dynasty (960-1840), the opium trade in China and Asia in the 18-19th century, international trade between China and Southeast Asia in pre- and early modern period (1350-1840), the history of European colonialism in early modern Asia, as well as the Taiping Rebellion and the Self-Strengthening Movement. His research focuses on the changing perceptions of opiates in premodern China, from the late Tang period to the advent of the Opium Wars. He is also interested in the instrumentalization of opium as a commodity by European actors in early modern Asia. Additionally, Jose has conducted research on the history of British collectors of Chinese bronzes during the wake of the Opium Wars.