Xiao Chen, Assistant Professor of History, has received a Luce/ACLS Early Career Long-Term Fellowship in China Studies to support the completion of his first book manuscript, Punishment, Frontier, and Ethnicity in the Making of the Qing Empire (1636–1912). The project examines how the Qing Empire used convict transportation, penal labor, and coerced migration to govern its Inner Asian frontiers, especially Northern Manchuria and Xinjiang. Drawing on Chinese- and Manchu-language legal archives, the book shows how punishment became central to Qing empire-building, frontier colonization, and the construction of ethnic hierarchy. During his fellowship leave in 2026–27, Xiao will complete new writing and revisions, present his research at conferences and workshops, convene a manuscript workshop, and prepare the full manuscript for submission to a university press.