Portraits of Impact

Dr. Ming Dong Gu joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2007 as an associate professor. A highly regarded expert in Chinese, Western and comparative literature, Gu was named the Katherine R. Cecil Professors in Foreign Languages in 2022.

The funding provided by the professorship’s endowment has been a significant source of support for research conducted by Gu and his students.

“In the past, I have had to use interlibrary loans to borrow books from other big libraries,” Gu said. “This has limitations to it because you can only hold that loan for a certain length of time. With the money I received through my endowment, I was able to buy quite a few books. One of those, for example, is the Cambridge edition of Science and Civilization in China, Volume 1. Now when I need it, I can go to my office’s bookshelf and pick it up. It’s so much more convenient.”

Gu is one of the most published authors in Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, with over 70 written articles and essays in English and more than 120 in Chinese. His articles have been published in several dozen academic journals, including Comparative Literature, Poetics Today, New Literary History, Aesthetics and Art Criticism and Philosophy East and West. He has also authored six monographs and edited or co-edited six others.

“A lot of my publications are possible because of the support of the University and my colleagues,” Gu said. “When I received the endowment [support], I was of course overjoyed, but I did not realize how it could help my research. With the endowed fund, I have been able to go to international conferences, where I was unable to go for lack of fund.”

Gu’s work and students are his life. He likes to have a close working relationship with his graduate students, encourages them to aim high and produce their best quality work.

“Before I came to UTD, I worked at another small liberal arts college,” Gu said. “It was a teaching college, so research was not as important as it is here. We also did not have graduate students, so that limited my research.”

Then, he came to UT Dallas and loved its commitment to interdisciplinary education.

“I went to an interdisciplinary university, and I liked that students could be enrolled in one department but have a professor for another department serve as their chair,” Gu said. “When I first found UTD, I was impressed that students are required to take courses from several areas. Literature students have to enroll in history courses or visual arts. I’ve known some students who have done their capstone projects and theses in two, sometimes three, different areas.”

Gu still considers himself an interdisciplinary scholar and encourages his students to approach literature similarly.

“When people first asked me, ‘What is your specialization?’ I was at a loss,” Gu said. “I did not know how to respond, because I was unable to characterize myself in a few words. Generally, I am a scholar of literature, but I also publish journals of philosophy, art criticism and cultural studies. Even in literature, my work can be broken down into Chinese literature, English literature, comparative literature, world literature and so forth. So now I say that I am a jack of all trades.”

Outside of the classroom, Gu has made it his mission to bring the community at large to UT Dallas. He serves as associate director of the Center for Asian Studies, working with Dr. Dennis Kratz, the center’s director, senior associate provost and the Ignacy and Celina Rockover Professor.

Although most affiliated faculty are located within the Bass School, the center works with professors from other schools to host cultural events and two endowed lecture series, the Carmen R. and Joseph F. Schneidler Lecture on Asian Studies, and the Anlin Ku Lecture on Chinese Culture.

“We sponsor great cultural events,” Gu said. “We aim for about two large-scale events a year, typically a celebration of the Chinese New Year and a Moon Festival. Each attracts about a thousand people, if not more, every year, so they are huge events.”

Gu and the center hope to add a third endowed lecture series and an endowed professorship in the future. On a personal level, he is also hopeful that he can complete at least eight books and a dozen more articles before retirement.

“I think my goals are things I can accomplish in the next five to 10 years,” Gu said. “With one book currently in review and another that I am currently writing, I’m already nearing my personal research goals. Part of the money that came from the endowment has been used as a stipend for research that I conduct over the summer. With that extra stipend, I think my goals can realistically be achieved. Moreover, the endowment allows me to pay students who assist me in my scholarly research. That saves my time.”

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