Dr Jacob Fordham

Research Officer

Department of Government

Languages
Classical Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Key Expertise
Translation, Commerce, Empire, Intellectual History

About me

Jacob Fordham is a postdoctoral research officer affiliated with the British Academy Global Convening Programme ‘Chinese Global Orders’, having previously obtained a DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Sheffield. He is a historian of changing norms and practices linking translation, commerce, and governance on the early modern South China coast and maritime Asia against the backdrop of the increasing interconnectivity of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, working with Chinese, Portuguese, and British archives.

Research interests

  • History of early modern translation
  • History of early modern commerce and empire
  • Global intellectual history