Dr. Måns Ahlstedt Åberg specializes in the history of sinology and Sino-Western interaction.
RESEARCH
Måns Ahlstedt Åberg was educated at Lund University (Sweden) and received his PhD at the University of Hong Kong in July 2025. His main research interests are the histories of European sinology and Sino-Western interaction during the early modern era. His doctor’s dissertation focuses on some of the first Chinese visitors in Europe and how they contributed to early sinology. In the past, he has also studied the modern history of eugenics and race-science in Sweden.
Research Interests
- History of sinology
- History of Sino-Western interaction
- Early modern Europe
PUBLICATIONS
Book
Frivilliga rasbiologer: Interaktionen och kunskapscirkulationen mellan rasbiologiska institutet och allmänheten under 1920- och 30-talet [Voluntary Eugenicists: The Interaction and Circulation of Knowledge between the Institute for Race Biology and the Swedish General Public during the 1920s and 1930s] (Möklinta: Gidlunds förlag, 2022). ISBN: 978-91-7844-486-1.
Silent travellers? Native Chinese in Europe as agents of Sino-European interaction, 1650–1830 (PhD diss., University of Hong Kong, 2025). https://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/358276
Articles and book chapters
“The first Chinese music heard in Europe: Instruments and musicians in the study of Chinese music in Europe during the long 18th century,” Early Music 53, no. 3 (2025): 270–283. https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caaf037
“‘My good friend the China-man’: Afock – den förste kinesen i Sverige (1786)” [‘My good friend the China-man’: Afock – the first Chinese in Sweden (1786)], Personhistorisk tidskrift 119, no. 1 (2023): 1–32.
“Amateur Eugenics: The ‘Great-Mother in Dalecarlia’ Genealogy Project and the Collaboration Between the Swedish Institute for Race Biology and the General Public, 1930–1935,” History of Intellectual Culture 1 (2022): 123–146. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110748819-007/html
TEACHING AND COURSES TAUGHT
- HIST2079 Early Modern Europe, 1500–1800
- HIST2230 Early modern Atlantic Worlds, c. 1500–1800
- GLAS7061 The Atlantic: Columbus to NATO